Our 12x12x12 Pledge: 12 Literacy Projects in 12 Countries in 12 Months

Education is the key to improving the standard of living for people around the world. And the key to an education is literacy.

There is a natural fit between literacy and the idea of writing notes of appreciation. That’s why the Note Project has pledged to make donations to at least 12 literacy projects in 12 countries in 12 months. That’s our 12x12x12 Pledge. The donations will be made through GlobalGiving and GlobalGivingUK.

Each month, we will feature one or more GlobalGiving literacy projects on the Note Project website. At the end of the month, we will donate 10% of that month’s proceeds from Note Project Kits and eKits to the featured literacy projects. Along the way, we’ll tell you about the people who are benefiting from the literacy projects — and about the good people who are doing the work. In the end, your participation in the Note Project will be supporting their efforts, and making the world a million times better. Literally.

Build A School For 2000 Vulnerable Kenyan Females

• Organization: Life Bloom Services International
• Country: Kenya
• $10 will buy one 50 kg bag of cement
• 35 will by 7 tons of building sand
• $60 will buy enough building bricks/stones to raise 1 square meter portion of the classroom walls

This project builds a model Vocational Skills school in Kenya (the first of its kind in Kenya), for women and girls trapped in cycles of poverty and commercial sex work, crimes and imprisonment.

 100 Mothers Literacy Program

• Country: Afghanistan
• $15 will pay for one student’s tuition for 1 month
• $40 will pay one teacher’s salary to teach a class of 15 mothers for 1 month
• $150 will buy textbooks for 100 mothers

This project provides 100 mothers in rural villages in Afghanistan with basic literacy program for a three- month period of time per term.

Expansion of Literacy Programs

• Organization: Boys and Girls Clubs of Portland Metropolitan Area
• Country: United States
• $10 will provide two children access to literacy instruction for an entire year
• $25 will provide necessary literacy materials for a full week
• $50 will buy purchase 8 new books for children to learn to read

This project will expand a successful literacy instruction model to youth struggling with learning differences, providing a structured, caring environment to help youth achieve academic success.

Born to Read: Raising a Generation of Readers

• Organization: San Antonio Public Library Foundation
• Country: United States
• $10 will buy 5 bilingual books
• $50 will buy 5 children complete literacy kits
• $100 will buy 10 children complete literacy kits

Born to Read provides 25,000 bilingual literacy kits, one to every baby born in Bexar County. Kits include 2 books (1 bilingual), a library card application and helpful tips on how to raise a reader.

Creating Positive Futures Work Programme

• Organization: New Horizon Youth Centre
• Country: United Kingdom
• $20 will pay for a young homeless person to attend a week’s worth of literacy and numeracy classes at our daycentre
• $50 will pay for a month’s travel for a young homeless person to attend a work experience placement
• $100 will train one young unemployed, homeless person with skills to take an apprenticeship in the building trade

This programme is successfully addressing the demand from young homeless people attending New Horizon Youth Centre for realistic education, employment and training (EET) opportunities. It addresses barriers that prevent these young people engaging with learning, to develop their employment skills and secure employment. Many of them are Not in Education Training or Employment (NEET), highly vulnerable, with learning disabilities and come to us from across London.

These are the literacy programs previously helped by the Note Project:

Launch Five Girls Clubs for Literacy Worldwide

• Organization: LitWorld
• Countries: Iraq, Kenya, Liberia and others
• $10 will buy pencils for two Girls Clubs
• $25 will provide writing/drawing supplies to a Girls Club for a year
• $55 will buy a set of story books

Help 150 Girls Survive Trafficking

• Organization: FAIR Fund

FAIR Fund’s program provides intensive aftercare support to teenage girls who are exploited and in trafficking situations in Washington, D.C., Serbia, Russia and Uganda. The caring staff supports each girl’s safe passage from victim to survivor by providing access to weekly job training, counseling, bus and metro passes.

Help 190 Women in Northern Uganda Learn to Read

• Organization: Women’s Global Empowerment Fund

When a woman learns to read and writer, her whole world opens up. The WGEF strives to reach poor and underserved women in northern Uganda with a focus on literacy, health and leadership.

From Child Labour to a Chance at School

• Organization: SAATH Charitable Trust
• Country: India
• £6 Provides a healthy meal a day for a child labourer for two months £13 Provides the teaching materials and aids needed to teach 35 children, at one centre, for three months
• £35 Will train one teacher to teach 35 children for one whole year

GlobalGiving connects individual and institutional donors directly to social, economic development, and environmental projects around the world. GlobalGiving was founded by two former World Bank executives who are using the Internet to create a highly efficient marketplace that enables more funding to reach projects throughout the globe and, at the same time, provides a more transparent, engaging way for donors to give.