Read.Play.Learn. with Dentist Bird to support literacy in Liberia.
100% of your purchase of this app will go to the We-Care Foundation's efforts to keep children reading and learning amidst the Ebola outbreak.
© B. D. Colen 2014
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Empty desks. Silent playgrounds.
Since July 2014, schools in Liberia have been closed to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. In a time of such crisis, how does a nation—already challenged by a literacy rate of 57% caused by a lengthy civil war—keep children engaged in learning?
Enter the We-Care Foundation
We-Care is an educational non-profit organization based in Liberia. It trains teachers on strategies to improve reading and writing, publishes children’s books, and runs lending libraries in schools and economically challenged communities. To date, it has trained over 900 teachers and impacted the lives of more than 20,000 students.
If Kids Can’t Go to the Library, the Library Must Go to Them
With schools and libraries shuttered since July 2014, We-Care’s “Waiting out the Ebola Crisis” campaign has been raising funds to distribute 10,000 home-school kits to children and families. It is also preparing materials to distribute to school children and teachers when schools eventually reoopen in Liberia.
Looking Forward
In November 2014, the reported number of new cases of Ebola dropped and the state of emergency in Liberia was lifted. The hope is that schools will reopen in early 2015.
Even if that is so, much work remains to be done to get schools back on track. “Before reoopening, schools need to be disinfected and cleaned. The schools will need washing hands facilities including thermometers, and the teachers will need to be shown how to handle their classes in the face of the possibility of the re-occurrence of Ebola,” says Michael Weah, founder of We-Care. “Children will need to be reminded of Ebola prevention methods such as handwashing.”
Once schools reoopen, We-Care will use monies from the sales of Dentist Bird to develop print materials for children, conduct teacher training workshops, and create radio jingles to educate children and teachers about Ebola prevention. It will also continue to distribute books to children.