Global Literacy Project, Inc.

The International Internship Program at Princeton University will again, participate in the 2010 Global Literacy Project Learning Expedition to South Africa. Last year, two Princeton University students, Connor Diemand-Yauman and Erica Clark went on the 2009 Global Literacy Project Learning Expedition. Connor and Erica spent two months teaching at the Setholela school in Randfontein.

Two Princeton University students have been selected by the Global Literacy Project for the 2010 expedition. “We are excited to have new students from Princeton who will continue the great work started by the 2009 interns” said Olubayi Olubayi, President of the Global Literacy Project. The Global Literacy Project Global Learning Expedition is an annual expedition that gives US students the opportunity to interact with and share experiences with students from other parts of the world.

The Pingry School is planning a summer 2010 service trip to South Africa. The Pingry School and the Global Literacy Project are excited to offer students the opportunity to connect across continents and cultures. The student volunteers will be traveling to South Africa mid summer to help create a school library as well as a community literacy program in the Guateng province. Look out for future updates.

2009 Make-A-Difference Day program at Grace Wilday School in Roselle New Jersey

Grace Wilday student with principal Reginald Mirthil and GLP representative, Emeka Akaezuwa

One of the highlights of GLP’s 2009 Make-A-Difference Day programming was our visit to Grace Wilday Junior High School. There, we provided books so that the 488 students at the school could each select a book that they would donate to someone in their community. Each book had to be accompanied by a card written by the student explaining that they wanted to share the gift as a way to pull their community together for Make-A-Difference Day. Nearly 1000 books were involved in the give-away.

Walkers support Global Literacy

The fall weather was brisk and organizers feared that it would rain but a break in the weather allowed over 25 organizations, family groups, and other interested individuals to follow the scenic route. In fact it made for a wonderful sense of solidarity and excitement among all the walkers.

Funds raised from the walk will assist in expanding our local “Take Reading Home” programs in New Jersey as well as GLP’s innovative “Classroom Connections” program that links South African and Kenyan school children with New Jersey students. The program also trains the teachers teaches them how to introduce fundamental ideas of human rights and common aspirations that all students share in the classroom. By raising their awareness of children’s and women’s rights, students and teachers can begin to address these issues in their wider communities.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ– October 5, 2009 – Close to 400 students in kindergarten at three New Brunswick nursery and pre-school programs will receive new books this week, thanks to a book drive by Global Literacy Project, Inc., as part of the “Take Reading Home” program being piloted with the Puerto Rican Action Board.

The books will be donated along with backpacks containing school supplies for their fall classes. Global Literacy Project volunteers will be continuing an ongoing reading program during the fall at each site.

Anyone interested in supporting the “Take Reading Home” program can become a volunteer in the program. After completing one training session, volunteers spend just a few hours each week teaching kindergartners to read. For more information please contact Emeka Akaezuwa at info@glpinc.org

September 13, 2009: Rutgers University, NJ.- As the academic year begins, students may look through their syllabi and realize their required readings include nothing they actually want to read. But Artemus Werts is offering some alternatives.
Werts, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, founded the R.E.A.D. book club, an acronym for Read, Engage and Discuss. “[The club is] really just about reading a book and being able to discuss it with a group of peers,” Werts said. The mission of R.E.A.D. is to provide an arena for the analysis of literature outside of a classroom setting, he said.

In addition to holding conversations about the books, the club plans to advance literacy around the world through cooperation with the Global Literacy Project, a non-profit organization that works to help provide books and build libraries abroad, Werts said.

See story here ->http://www.dailytargum.com/university/student-involvement/group-encourages-students-to-r-e-a-d-1.1876039

Neeraj Shekhar, of Martinsville, New Jersey, collected some 1,000 medical books as part of a self-designed initiative with the Global Literacy Project. The books–in addition to models, posters, stethoscopes, and a digital projector–were donated to the Delta School of Nursing, an educational facility in a small Southern India coastal village that serves girls from oppressed and impoverished communities. Neeraj was inspired by the difference that access to literacy can make when he and his parents participated in a GLP Global Learning Expedition to South Africa in  the summer of 2007. Neeraj and his parents traveled to India this past March to deliver the items to the delta School as well as to volunteer in setting up a small library with the items. According to Dr. Olubayi Olubayi, president of the Global Literacy Project, Shekhar is the youngest person to undertake this kind of project by himself.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090412/NEWS/904120316

Natalie Jesionka has spent much of the last decade pursuing a joint calling as a journalist and human rights activist. Her call to “witness history,” as she puts it, leads her to “forgotten, neglected, and underreported stories’’ that often involve marginalized groups living in impoverished exile.

The child of Polish immigrants, Jesionka was raised with a global outlook. What prompted her particular take on the world, however, was losing a friend at an early age to domestic violence. Larger human rights causes became “a way to process it,’’ she explains.

She got involved in international campaigns by joining Amnesty International at age 13 and made a foray into journalism soon after, filming a documentary on Chinatown youth gangs that was sponsored by P.O.V., the PBS television series that broadcasts documentary films. She has not looked back since.

In 2004, while a Rutgers undergraduate, Jesionka traveled to Ansan, Korea, to document the country’s treatment of refugees, people she described as “living in shadows with few social supports or skills training.’’ She focused on a group from Congo, living at a migrant shelter. The group came to her attention following the death of a 3-year-old boy who was refused medical treatment.

UNESCO distributed her documentary, and it was picked up by Korean broadcasters. Similarly, her films on the perils of mining in South Africa have been shown on television stations in that country.

During her visit to Grace Wilday on Friday, April 3rd, 2009, she will talk about how she ended up teaching English to monks hidden in the Thai jungles amongst other topics.

(Biographical details excerpted from a FOCUS article by Tracey Regan <http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2009-01-20.2858251382/article.2009-01-20.3255947970>)

Milena Lurie reading with Indian students

Milena in her own words…

“About a year ago I decided that for a community service project, I wanted to make a difference for an orphanage in Southern India. Our family friends, Lynn and her husband Evelyn, support orphanage in a village in southern india and suggested that I work on creating a library there. My mother’s other friends the Vanechs had told us about Global Literacy Project, an organisation there daughter Christina had had a good experience with service oriented work in Africa. We got in touch with them and they helped us plan out what we would do with the library. I began emailing tons of people and I started a book drive and received around 42,000 books by the end. The books were all sent to India and I visited the orphanage in early June of 2008. I read to the kids and i danced and played many games with them. They were amazing and so thrilled to be learning how to read the donated books. This year I have been working on a short documentary of my visit that I recently finished. The documentary shows tons of pictures from my trip there with all of the kids. It was a wonderful trip and I cannot wait to return this summer to work with the kids again.”

Visit with Milena at the Lady Lynn Joyful Home in this video -> milena_at_lady_lynn_orphanage

See more about Milena’s efforts in SPAN, the magazine of the American Embassy, New Delhi. http://span.state.gov/wwwhspseptoct0810.html

Also, local coverage in the Indian news… http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/16/stories/2008061659881100.htm

May 7, 2008.-Instead of receiving presents for their birthdays, eight sixth grade students recently decided to use the occasion to give a collective gift to the Global Literacy Project.

Camille Vanasse of Bridgewater, Drew Topor of Madison, Nikky Zezza of Greenbrook, Lizzie Abbott and Mikaele Lewis of Basking Ridge, Haley LaFontaine and Morgan Wahby of Summit, and Kyle Casey of Montclair asked their families and other Grade 6 families to make donations to GLP. To show their support, the families raised $5,000.

See story here -> http://blog.nj.com/reporter/2008/06/students_use_birthdays_to_give.html