A 9 year-old girl with a story book outside her home in her village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Photo Credit: Asad Zaidi/Save the Children 2014.

A 9 year-old girl with a story book outside her home in her village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.

Children's Literacy Programs

Literacy Boost

While more children are in school today than ever before, many are not learning basic skills like reading once they get there. Save the Children's Literacy Boost is helping to change that by creating a culture of reading both inside and outside the classroom that dramatically improves children’s literacy development.

Literacy Boost helps children learn to read and read to learn by:

  • Measuring kids' reading skills to see how well they know their ABCs, sound out words and letters, read and understand sentences.
  • Training teachers to help children crack the code of reading, keep students engaged and interested in reading books, and use games, songs and stories in literacy lessons.
  • Getting communities involved in learning by providing books, libraries and supplies, sponsoring camps, "reading buddies" and other learning activities

For Kid Readers:

  • Kids can practice reading with your parents and friends -- at home and at school.
  • Visit your local library and read! If you don't have a library, create one—share a book with a friend.

For Adult Readers:

  • Talk and read to a child every day to introduce new words into their vocabulary.
  • Promote reading during everyday activities like shopping, cooking and running errands.
  • Tell your elected officials in Washington, DC that you support U.S. investments and policies to help kids learn to read around the globe.

Leveraging Change For Children

Through Literacy Boost and other effective education and literacy programs, Save the Children is working together with partners around the world to ensure that every child receives a quality education and gains the skills and knowledge they need to thrive and develop.

  • Globally, Save the Children is helping to craft a new global development goal on education to ensure that girls and boys everywhere learn how to read, write, and count by the age of 12, and that the learning gaps between the poorest and the richest children are significantly reduced.

  • In the United States, Save the Children is working with the U.S. Congress to support funding for global education, both bilaterally and through the multilateral Global Partnership for Education initiative, and support policies like the Education for All Act that will make a transformative change in children’s ability to learn in developing countries.

Where is Literacy Boost?

Save the Children helps teachers, parents and communities boost their children’s literacy development — transforming their future and the future we all share. To date, Literacy Boost has helped nearly 4 million children in more than 30 countries improve their reading skills.

Literacy Boost Map

Students Rebuild: Make a Hand, Lend a Hand

Students Rebuild, in partnership with Save the Children and Global Nomads Group, has launched an effort to help provide youth around the globe pathways to change their lives and lift themselves into a better future.

Throughout the world, millions of young people have to leave their education behind to find ways to help provide for themselves and their families most basic needs. Despite this, many still live in extreme poverty – on less than $1.90 a day.

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