READ SI has started Phase 2 of the National Literacy Campaign.
After impacting 33 villages in Phase 1 (June and July) now the READ SI teacher trainers are going out for October through December training village teachers and helping to set up classes and libraries. In Phase 1 only two provinces were not visited and they were Temotu and Makira/Ulawa.
In Phase 2, all provinces will be visited except for Renbel and Choiseul. This time, 19 villages in the Reef Islands, Temotu Province, will be given the opportunity to be part of READ SI National Literacy Campaign.
The teachers of READ SI have spent weeks packing 120 library kits for Phase 2. Anyone can get the agreement form for a village from the Bulk Shop. There are five of them in Honiara.
Mrs Joyce Boykin goes to them each week and picks up the forms that have been returned and signed by members of a village committee. READ SI asks that villages close up be involved in the programme.
When there is a cluster of villages, each village selected two people to be trained to be reading teachers. These people must be able to read already. If there are five or six villages close together, then the training would be for about 12 people.
The READ SI trainers stay three extra weeks to support and encourage the establishment of each village reading classes and works with the people on how to use the library books. There are over 200 books for each village.
The most important part of the READ SI programme is to teach the women of the village how to read so they can teach their children. Older children who do not go to school are invited to join, also the men and youth in the village.
What is critical is the use of the books in the kits. They are full of good information—for example—how to raise the standard of living in the village; how to have a healthier family; how to do better gardening and how to choose a good leader are a few of the topics of the books.
After three months, a monitoring team will contact each village to find out how the classes are going and what changes have taken place because of the READ SI program.
This whole process is a partnership between READ SI and each village that is part of the programme. It is the vision of the National Literacy Campaign to reach 600 villages and with God’s continued help, it will be achieved.
