Christianna Foundation to provide up to 20,000 children with essential storybooks
We are in the midst of an education crisis in Nigeria, the country with the highest amount of out-of-school children in the world. Due to Covid-19, children are forced to stay out of schools, with many in Nigeria never expected to return, especially girls.
Christianna Foundation is giving children a reason to return to school through the launch of its most ambitious library project to date.
Launching a mobile library service in the new academic year, Book Box Library Club (BBLC), will support 102 under-resourced primary schools in rural Nigeria, starting in Ona-Ara, Oyo State.
The Book Club will provide relevant, relatable storybooks to children aged 4 to 12 in both English and Yoruba. Working from within primary schools and with teachers, Christianna Foundation will host events and competitions, develop learning activities, and support a Community Reading Mentor Scheme.
Books that are borrowed will be used at school with a guaranteed 15-minutes reading time per day and can be taken home to promote reading for pleasure beyond the school environment.
More than 16,000 children have already benefited from projects that the charity has run within schools in South-West Nigeria.
These include the building of nine school libraries. Also, the implementation of Worldreader’s eReader programme in three schools.
This newest project sees Christianna Foundation continue to support the United Nations Global Goal 4, to provide quality, equitable education for all children.
Book Box Library Club will be free to use for both children and schools. Pop-up library days will be hosted at each school every two weeks, allowing children to borrow between 20 and 40 storybooks per year.
The Library Club will kick off with training days on ‘Caring for Your Library Books’ and, to help them love their books, every child will be presented with their very own beautifully designed, water and dust resistant book bag, a gift which is theirs to keep.
UK Director of Christianna Foundation, Rebecca Farmer, said:
“The pilot phase for Book Box Library Club began in January 2020, before Covid-19 saw all schools shut down. We are more committed than ever to start the new academic year in September. By supporting children in under-resourced rural schools with the books and materials they need to succeed in achieving literacy.
Nigeria has been included in a list of 12 countries most at risk of falling even further behind with education targets following the pandemic. Many of these children have had no access to computers and online-teaching, their education have been completely disrupted.
Already unfairly disadvantaged by a lack of resources, the education of these vulnerable children will be especially impacted by the Coronavirus. We know that children who left school so suddenly may not come back, especially girls.
We want to give them every incentive to continue their education. Therefore, we believe that being given access to books and reading materials that they have never had before will be just the kind of incentive they need and give them a chance to bridge the growing attainment gap.
We need corporates and civil society to get involved. The crisis is too large and time critical for the government alone to tackle. We can’t leave this generation of children behind, they need their community to support them, their global community”.
To learn more about corporate sponsorship opportunities, contact Rebecca. To sponsor a class or donate a book bundle, please visit our website
About Christianna Foundation
Christianna Foundation is a charity that focuses on bringing quality, equitable education to the children of Nigeria. We help provide primary schools with the resources, facilities and teacher training they need to improve the literacy rate and empower children to learn.
Discover more about us here
For media enquiries please contact:
Rebecca Iaconianni Gould
