Giddy-up and Read: Books arrive by horseback to children in Vanuatu

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (April 20, 2025) – Children’s books written by, for, and about people in Vanuatu are being delivered to children across the country, and horses are helping to get those books to families in the most remote locations.

The horseback delivery is part of Save the Children’s Library For All program, implemented in partnership with the Vanuatu Ministry of Education & Training, which aims to boost literacy in Vanuatu, where nearly 8 in 10 children in Year 4 (Grade 3 in the United States) don’t meet minimum reading proficiency standards.¹

The program is providing all 56,000 of Vanuatu’s primary school children with books that are set in Vanuatu, written by Indigenous, ni-Vanuatu authors, and which reflect the day to day lives of people on the island. Transporting the books by horseback also helps Save the Children bring books to places on the island where books are hard to come by.

In one particularly difficult delivery, 59 books written by ni-Vanuatu authors inspired by the island’s children were packed into waterproof boxes and then travelled on horseback over boulder-strewn mountain paths, dense jungle and across rivers to reach their eager readers.

Two of the books offer potentially life-saving lessons in country that’s located in one of the most seismically active regions in the world, with the two titles in the Library For All collection focused on helping children affected by the 2024 double earthquake in Vanuatu. The books, written by a child psychologist, provide children with gentle strategies for calming themselves when they reflect on the earthquake.

The stories’ characters find ways to overcome their fears and open up about their feelings with those around them.

One of the children to receive a book is Evans, a bright and inquisitive seven-year-old who wants to be an island chief one day, like his grandfather was.

"I like reading because you learn how to read more hard words, and books teach me how to be kind to people," Evans said.

Sylvie, 8, is another child who loves to read under the shade of a tree. Her mother Caroline said: "She loves reading these books, because they're about Vanuatu. We must know our customs and our culture."

Relvie Matariki, Vanuatu Country Director, Save the Children, said:

"These are books for children, inspired by children and it's a beautiful way to foster their love of reading. When a child learns to read, a whole world of new opportunities opens up for them. This is not just about reading skills though. When a child learns to read, they learn to ask, to imagine, to inform themselves and to decide; literacy becomes the paddle that lets them steer their own future."

"Save the Children is working hard to boost literacy across Vanuatu, and we hope that by reaching the most remote areas of the country even more children will be encouraged to boost their reading skills."

Save the Children has been working in Vanuatu for more than 40 years and has a long history of responding to emergencies in the Pacific and supporting children with education, health, and child protection programs.

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Notes:

[1] According to the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy assessment in 2021 in partnership with Vanuatu Ministry of Education & Training Pacific Islands.