Dec. 2008.- Hayley Diverio and Alexis Grieco got involved with the Global Literacy Project 2008 with a collection for International Literacy Day on September 8th that they directed to our “Backpacks for Kids” program. They haven’t looked back since!

Currently they are working on the culmination of their spring book drive at Gill St. Bernard’s which will run throughout April 2009. They already have some 6,000 books collected over the last few months–without any publicity!–and expect that the big April push will see them collecting three times as much! WOW!

Bragg School fifth graders along with their teacher Meryl Ironson

Chester, New Jersey, Dec. 2008.- On December 6, 2008 Bragg School fifth graders, along with their teachers Meryl Ironson and Nicole Macaluso, completed a book drive that collected 13,000 books! They are now working on sharing stories, letters and poetry with fellow fifth graders at the Randfontein Primary School in South Africa. The hope is to complete and publish an anthology of poems at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. Read more media coverage HERE.

Chatham Day School Students Aim to Make A Difference in South African Students’ Lives As They Themselves Are Transformed

September 2007-May 2008.- At the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, Chatham Day School (CDS), in conjunction with the Global Literacy Project, began piloting a Global Literacy Program. As an inaugural school in GLP’s revamped School-To-School Partnership Program we sought to promote a thematic study of South Africa and provide reading and writing opportunities, that would be integrated with the Middle School social studies and language arts curricula. More…

(Read additional coverage in a local newspaper… Chatham Courier 5/7/08. You can find out more about the Chatham Day School and Thabisile Primary School partnership program HERE)

See local New Jersey newspaper coverage here–> 1 | 2

Also, read about the book drive in the July 2007 on-line edition of Vanity Fair!

Also read about their trip to South Africa here >>

See South African news coverage here >>

December 2006-March 2007-.- Matthew Wille has an abiding love of books and the Flanders teen plans to extend his interest to promote literacy in Kenya. Matthew, 13, is collecting books and funds as part of the community action requirement for his bar mitzvah. The coming of age ceremony is scheduled for March 10 at Temple Hatikvah in Flanders.

Matthew hopes to collect 1,000 books and $4,000 in donations to pay the shipping costs. Global Literacy Project will in turn donate 19,000 books to the 1,000 collected by Matthew. All the books will be sent to Chamisiri section of Kenya. For more information please contact Matthew via Viki Willie at mjcvw@verizon.net. More…