Young Readers Enjoy Books in Nicaragua

Young readers enjoy books donated by Reader to Reader to the Podcast for Peace project in Managua, Nicaragua.

One of the projects initially launched through Reader to Reader’s Springboard Program, Podcasts for Peace is a youth-focused community center that enriches the lives of over 400 young people.

About the Springboard Program

Reader to Reader's Springboard Program brings Five College students into the world of non-profit work through the development and implementation of their own international or domestic literacy project. This program guides students through the entire process, teaching them the skills necessary to lead their own literacy project and giving them unparalleled leadership opportunity.

College Students Chart New Path for Beyond el Campo Project

For the seventh straight year, Reader to Reader’s Beyond el Campo team is spending the summer in the village of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, helping strengthen and support the village’s public library.

The team is made up of four Amherst College students, who spend their days working on the infrastructure of the library and running literacy programs for the village’s children and adults.

Among the first infrastructure tasks they tackled this summer was the building of a concrete path to the library, and painting the library’s exterior.

About Beyond el Campo

Founded in 2009, Beyond el Campo established and supports 3-room public library with over 3,000 books, a computer lab, and a space for teens. The library serves the immediate community of over 2,000 people. 

The college-student-led project provides educational programming, including book groups, summer reading camps and after-school study support.

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Hope of Haiti Project Continues to Aid Haiti School

Haeinn Woo, the founder of the Hope of Haiti project, recently brought books from Reader to Reader and funds raised by Mt. Holyoke students to the school that is supported in Haiti.

Hope of Haiti is one of eight international projects created and supported through Reader to Reader’s Springboard Program.

Since being established after Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, Hope of Haiti has donated books, school supplies and paid teachers’ salaries in order to further education in Haiti.

About the Springboard Program

The Springboard Program brings Five College students into the world of non-profit work through the development and implementation of their own international or domestic literacy project. Springboard guides students through the entire process, teaching them the skills necessary to lead their own literacy project and giving them unparalleled leadership opportunity.

Past Springboard projects have included building a public library in a coffee farming village in Costa Rica, establishing a school to teach women to read in Nigeria, and expanding a special education program in the Dominican Republic.

If you are interested in learning more about the Springboard Program please click here.

Beyond el Campo Team Spends Summer in Costa Rica

This year’s Beyond el Campo team, Leonie Rauls, Melissa Martinez and Maria Vergara, arrived in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, where they taught their first English class at the public library.

“We taught them the body parts and played an interactive game of putting note cards with the body parts on someone's body. Then we sang the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song to reinforce what they had learned. “

About Beyond el Campo

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

2014 Springboard Project Recipient Announced

We are pleased to announce that Elson Dale Low, a senior at Amherst College, has been accepted into Reader to Reader’s Springboard Program.

The Springboard Program helps college students launch global literacy projects all around the world, and Elson Dale Low’s project, the Cognitive Initiative, develops academic summer programs in Guyana.

Under the terms of the Springboard Program, Reader to Reader has awarded Low $2,000 to be used for staffing costs and other project needs.

This is a very well-thought-out project,” notes Reader to Reader founder David Mazor. “We are pleased to support the excellent work that Elson Dale Low is doing, and know it is making an important educational contribution to the young people of Guyana.”

Past Springboard projects have built a library in a coffee farming village in Costa Rica, started a school for special needs students in the Dominican Republic, supported a school in Haiti, built a community center in Nicaragua, and founded a school Nigeria.

Click to see a one-minute film on the Springboard Program.

Duo to lead Beyond el Campo Project in Costa Rica

Amherst College students  Alexandra Barber and Cheyenne Pritchard will be spending their summer in the village of Santa Cruz de Leon Cortes, Costa Rica, as the leaders of the Beyond el Campo Project.

The duo will supervise a group of college students that will be doing a wide variety of literacy projects.

Now in its fifth year, Beyond el Campo established and supports 3-room public library with over 3,000 books, and provides educational programming, including book groups, summer reading camps and after-school study support.

The library serves the immediate community of over 2,000 people. 

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Caitlin Scudder and Students Heads to Costa Rica in Support of Beyond el Campo Project

Caitlin Scudder, founder of Reader to Reader's Beyond el Campo project and former reading mentor, is heading back to Costa Rica with students from the Spanish class she teaches at The Academy at Charlemont.

Caitlin will bring 12 students and 3 chaperones on a trip to visit the public library she established in the coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz.  The group will contribute books and funds to help sustain the library.

Originally established as a 1-room library with 500 books, the library has grown to 3 rooms housing almost 3,000 books thanks to twice-annual visits by Amherst College and Reid College students as well as other volunteers. The service trips are supervised by Reader to Reader.

Thanks to the energy and passion of these volunteers, the library has also added computers, Wi-Fi, summer-long literacy programs, and reading groups, and is an important community social space.

One of Reader to Reader's priorities this year is to expand the number of young adult level books, and Caitlin is bringing down books we have given her that include Spanish-language editions of The Hunger Games series, and other popular young adult novels.

We are so pleased that Caitlin is still helping this much-needed community library thrive, and wish her and her students un buen viaje!

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Beyond el Campo Team Spends Summer in Costa Rica

This summer, a team of six volunteers have been on the ground in Costa Rica working on Reader to Reader's Beyond el Campo project to provide support for the growing public library and community outreach programs in the village of Santa Cruz de Leon Cortes.

After touching down in San Jose and doing some exploring in Heredia, they were ready to head to Santa Cruz and get to work!

The library Beyond el Campo built four years ago is running smoothly, and the volunteers have come up with some new and exciting projects and programs to implement during the summer ahead. These projects include:

• Improving the library’s facilities and aesthetics through painting, design, murals and the creation of creative and comfortable spaces for crafts, reading, studying, and leisure;
• Holding community events to engage and educate more of the community in the library and its many available services;
• Teaching English classes to community members;
• Engaging children and youth in summer learning activities to prevent summer learning loss;
• Creating new programs and offerings in the library that appeal to all ages, especially the elderly;
• Setting up the two new secured laptops in a computer lab, with wireless internet and technology workshops;
• And so much more!

The trip is ongoing, so stay tuned for more updates.

About Beyond el Campo

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

WriteMe to Boost English-Language Proficiency in Zimbabwe

Reader to Reader is pleased to announce its 2013 Springboard Program project, WriteMe.

The project is designed to boost English-language proficiency among high school students in Zimbabwe.

About WriteMe

For students in Zimbabwe, English reading and writing proficiency are crucial skills that are imperative to their academic and professional development. Unfortunately, for a large number of students in rural Zimbabwe, English is not their first or second language. This is due to a lack of necessary resources such as books and textbooks that help to develop student’s literacy. As a result many schools located in remote areas across Zimbabwe have witnessed several of their students fail English exams and drop out of school.

“Most of our students are unable to progress to the next level of their studies because they fail their English reading and writing exams. Usually most drop out of school instead of repeating their studies because of financial constraints,” laments the deputy headmaster of Ndanga High School in Birchenough Bridge, Zimbabwe.

Developed by Amherst College sophomore Courage Matiza, a citizen of Zimbabwe, WriteMe hopes to aid in the development of these reading and writing skills by providing the necessary resources to students.

“I believe literacy is a powerful tool to break the poverty cycle in rural Zimbabwe as it empowers young Zimbabweans with the skills to develop their communities. Indeed, to give a child a pen and book is to arm them and their community for the future,” Matiza says.

WriteMe will provide the space and resources needed to develop reading and writing skills by building and renovating libraries in remote schools. These libraries will be platforms where students engage with the literary world. Through provision of domestic and international reading materials we seek to open out a world of opportunities for students.

A key component is the WriteMe essay writing competition, which offers an opportunity for students to showcase their writing skills and an incentive for students to be engaged in the writing process.

WriteMe hopes to amplify the voices of these young Zimbabweans by publishing these stories in the form of e-books and paper books and distribute them to a global audience.

Also planned are reading and writing training workshops that aim to develop students’ literacy skills. These workshops will serve as platforms on to not only train students to master the basics of writing, but also expose them to opportunities in the world of literature.

The first WriteMe essay competition will take place from February 15, 2013 to March 20, 2013 at Ndanga High School in Birchenough, Zimbabwe.

In addition, the project hopes to renovate the Ndanga High School’s library in July 2013.

If you want to support WriteMe visit its Crowdrise fundrasing page at www.crowdrise.com/writeme

About the Springboard Program

The Springboard Program brings college students into the world of non-profit work through the development and implementation of their own international or domestic literacy project. This program guides students through the entire process, teaching them the skills necessary to lead their own literacy project and giving them unparalleled leadership opportunity.

For more information visit www.readertoreader.org/literacy/springboard.

Springboard Program Adds Rural China Literacy Project

Reader to Reader is delighted to announce the acceptance a new project to the Springboard Program, which brings Five College students into the world of non-profit work through the development and implementation of their own international or domestic literacy project. This program guides students through the entire process, teaching them the skills necessary to lead their own literacy project and giving them unparalleled leadership opportunity.

Catch in the Rye, created by Amherst College student Yi Lu (a.k.a. Louis,) will work with the abandoned children of migrant workers in rural China. Even by the most conservative estimate from government sources, more than 32 million children in China today will grow up without their parents. The absence of parents not only undermines the most basic safety and nutrition needs of children, but also takes a longer – and often unrecognized – toll on their self-expression and self-confidence. They are a generation that is forced to mature before their time.

Yet despite their lonely and loveless childhoods, these left-behind children can hardly find refuge in schools. Understaffed and underfinanced, schools in rural China emphasize rote learning and have very few books as intellectual nourishment in their reading rooms. As a result, many left-behind children, without essential literary and social skills, will abandon schools and join their parents in the cities once they become old enough to work, replicating another generation on the road. During summer, when school is in recess, even this thin layer of protection disappears. For these left-behind children, the season of bounty might as well be the barest.

Through the power of literature and participatory theatre, Catch in the Rye seeks to protect the innocence and joy of children who are left behind in the vast fields of rural China – just as Holden, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, would like to catch children before they fall from the rye field and become adults too soon. Using a variety of activities -- storytelling, improvisations, as well as other theatre games -- the project will engage children in interactive performances of literary texts by exploring their voices, bodies, and imagination.

Other Springboard projects include Beyond el Campo, which has built a public library in the rural coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica; To Mother With Love, a women’s literacy school for the uneducated mothers of Ikenne, Nigeria, who sacrifice so much for their children; Hope of Haiti, sponsoring Haiti's children and teachers in areas devastated by poverty, as well as the earthquake; and Esperanza, a pioneer of special education programming in the Dominican Republic.

For more information on The Springboard Program visit http://www.readertoreader.org/literacy/springboard

Summer Reading, Summer Fun!

Amherst College students Caitlin Scudder and Caroline Stedman held a literacy summer camp in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica as part of project Beyond el Campo. A fun learning experience was had by all.

The camp included reading workshops, field trips, and lots of arts and crafts.


Reader to Reader’s project Beyond el Campo builds community libraries in coffee-farming villages in rural Costa Rica. Beyond el Campo also runs literacy summer camps and adult book clubs in rural Costa Rica.

Open for Business!

Reader to Reader's Cait Scudder reports on the opening of the new community library in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica)

Hola David,

I am happy to say that Beyond el Campo continues to advance smoothly and steadily. Right now, there is a family (mainly the mother and her 14 year old son) who are running the library, which is open to the community 3 days a week. She has told me so many times how incredible this experience is for her, to have something to do, to get out of the house-- a major problem in these kinds of rural communities is the lack of work for women. I am also so happy to see her son, Danny, really enthused about working here.

We now have an established system of library cards, a regular schedule, volunteers to act as the librarians, book stands, and a secure lock for the library. It is in its first stages, to be sure, but it is fully functional, and so far there have been over 50 people who have come into the library and checked out a book.

The computer we brought down is also going to very good use. All of the library cardholders are registered in the system-- Danny has been teaching Gladys how to use a computer, and she is so happy to be learning how to use it.

In the beginning of this week, I am in San Jose, and today am going to meet with the library sciences school of the Universidad De Costa Rica, to see about getting some help getting our library started. I am also going to look in to purchasing a dehumidifier to put in the library, seeing as the climate in Santa Cruz, especially during the rainy season, is very humid and we don't want the books to get destroyed. Later in the week

I am going to Santa Cruz to meet with Victor, Gladys, Danny, Sergio, and the rest of the library committee to see where we are, where we are going, and what are short and long terms needs and goals are.

I am so proud of this community and so thrilled to see the really remarkable progress we have made in less than a year. It is incredible.

Best wishes,

Cait