This Christmas, give the gift of education

It’s December, the month for Christmas carols, gingerbread cookies, and festive decorations — and for many, frantic trips to the mall as shoppers try to find meaningful presents for family members and friends. Want to give a gift that lasts a lot longer than winter wear or the latest model in the iPod line? You can consider supporting literacy for children around the world.

Here are a few places that you can donate to:

Room to Read: 2010 Holiday Gift Catalog

Room to Read was founded with the mission to promote literacy and to support schoolchildren — especially girls — in developing countries. The organization works in tandem with local organizations and communities around Asia and Africa. To date, it has established 10,000 libraries, helped build 1,129 schools (hiring local workers to do so), and provided over 10,000 scholarships to help girls complete their secondary education. Room to Read has also formed a “Local Language Publishing” program where local writers and illustrators can publish children’s books in the region’s language and culture.

If you donate to one of Room to Read’s programs on or before December 31, the amount you contribute will be matched by an outside donor (up to $500,000), meaning that your donation has twice the impact. Just $25 to the Local Language Publishing program provides 25 local-language books for children in various parts of the world, and $50 to the Reading Room program pays for educational games and puzzles for one of Room to Read’s libraries.

First Book

First Book gives new, high-quality books to places that serve children from low-income backgrounds, including preschools, after-school programs, tutoring programs, shelters, and day care centers. In fewer than 20 years, it has provided over 80 million books to these programs for children across the United States and Canada. First Book claims that every $2 donated to their organization “buys a new book for a child in need”.

You can donate to First Book online (through December 31, every dollar contributed will be matched with one book up to 50,000 books) or support First Book by purchasing your holiday gifts from their store. Another option is to donate used books (guidelines are posted here).

Campaign for Female Education

The Campaign for Female Education, also known as CAMFED, aims to combat poverty and AIDS through a long-term preventive approach “by educating girls and empowering young women” in Africa. According to their website, “more than 1,065,710 children in impoverished areas of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana and Malawi have benefited from [their] innovative education programs.” CAMFED does this by paying for girls’ school fees, uniforms, and supplies from elementary school through college and even professional schools; they also provide business training and grants for women to help them start their own businesses.

As little as $25 helps “send a girl to elementary school”, according to this article in the New York Times, and “a $300 donation pays for a girl to attend middle school for a year in rural Zambia.” Again, an outside donor has pledged to match all gifts “dollar for dollar up to $500,000″, so any contributions will pack double the power.

Image courtesy of Case Western Reserve University (http://msass.case.edu/childrenandfamilies/)

1. 

   Karina L says:

   December 20, 2010 at 11:44 pm

   I was happy to read this. Room to Read is one of the organizations we will invite to our conference!

   reply
2. 

   Nicole says:

   December 21, 2010 at 12:22 am

   That’s fantastic! I’d love to learn more about Room to Read — thanks for telling me about this.

   reply

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