美國閱讀空間：培養閱讀習慣

美國閱讀空間計劃因其開展通過地方語言出版物促進性別平等和識字而獲得了2011年聯合國教科文組織孔子教育獎

    
    自2000年以來，超過510萬的兒童通過“閱讀空間”項目有獲得了更好的教育。其中包括：
    ● 建立學校1442所
    ● 建立圖書館1246個
    ● 出版原版兒童讀物：553種
    ● 分發的當地/英文書籍:940萬冊
    ● 參與女童教育項目人數：10590

    “改變世界自教育兒童開始”，這也是非政治組織閱讀空間的信條。該組織與地方社區、合作組織以及政府合作，培養小學生的文化技能和閱讀習慣，支持女童讀完中學，學習在學校及校外生活所需的生活技能。該組織的計劃“通過當地語言出版物促進性別平等和識字”榮獲2011年聯合國教科文組織孔子教育獎。
    閱讀空間于2000年在美國舊金山成立，主要在九個國家，即孟加拉、柬埔寨、印度、老撾、尼泊爾、南非、斯里蘭卡、越南和贊比亞開展活動，幫助當地社區用當地少數民族語言開發和文化相關的閱讀材料。該組織的地方語言出版計劃已經出版了25種語言的超過500種書籍，發行量超過500萬冊。
    閱讀空間開展了四項綜合的、相互關聯的項目：該組織在兒童由于貧困、少數民族或其他壁壘而處于弱勢的社區建立了11000所社區兒童圖書館。學校閱讀屋計劃幫助建立安全且兒童友好型學校。女童教育計劃使女童能有機會讀完中學。該計劃也是2011年聯合國教科文組織掃盲獎關注的重點，它旨在確保兒童和教師能夠獲得各種閱讀材料，以便能夠以一種輕松且有意義的方式使用書籍。
    由于缺乏用當地語言編寫的兒童讀本，“閱讀空間”出版項目應運而生。其出版物的內容與各教育階段相適應（從圖畫書到故事書再到活頁書），涵蓋性別平等、環境、健康、藝術、啟蒙單詞和基礎詞匯、道德、價值、家庭生活、民間故事、詩韻等。如今，每本數的書的出版量達到5000到10000冊，并分發至學校圖書館及其他機構。它也是尼泊爾和柬埔寨國內最大的用當地語言出版兒童讀物的出版社之一，其尼泊爾課本曾獲得“年度兒童讀本”獎，2008年和2009年在老撾獲得“老撾優秀圖書獎”。由于當地語言圖書的印刷和出版都在本國進行，所以成本非常低，接近1美元一本。
    所有的書籍都在相關國家內部編訂，由經篩選出來的當地作者和插圖繪畫者來編寫與文化現狀相關的兒童讀物。其中有些故事改編自民間故事，有的則來自由“閱讀空間”自主舉辦的作文大賽中的作品，這一做法不僅推進閱讀掃盲，同時也促進了協作。由各國政府官員、課程專家、作者、插畫作者以及“閱讀空間”的工作人員組成的國家書籍開發委員會作為顧問理事會評估和選擇書稿。通常當地兒童對書籍進行測試，對其情節、特點、語言及目標群體的適合度給出評價。
    “故事在人類歷史上扮演著重要角色”，斯里蘭卡的Vasanthy  Thayavaran夫人如是說。她是“閱讀空間”地方語言出版物項目的作者之一。“在我的傳統文化中，祖母都會給全家口傳故事，但時代變化了。口傳故事消失了，但是我們需要通過書籍來彌補這一空缺，當你看到你為孩子們編寫的書籍正在被其閱讀時，這是你一生中最快樂的時光。”
   
    Http//roomtoread.org/
    Jean O' Sullivan

Room to Read
Cultivating the habit of reading

    Room to Read, in the United States of America, has been awarded the 2011 UNESCO Confucius Prize for its programme on Promoting Gender Equality and Literacy through Local Language Publishing

    Over 5.1 million children have gained better access to education through Room to Read since 2000.
    This includes:
    ● Schools established: 1,442
    ● Libraries established: 11,246
    ● Original children’s books published: 553
    ● Local English-language books distributed: 9.4 million
    ● Girls’ Education programme participants: 10,590

    “World change starts with educated children” is the credo of the Room to Read non-governmental organization.
Working with local communities, partner organizations and governments, it develops literacy skills and the habit of reading among primary school children, and supports girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. Its programme “Promoting Gender Equality and Literacy through Local Language Publishing” has received one of the two awards of the 2011 UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.
    Founded in 2000, based in San Francisco, the United States and operating in nine countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia), Room to Read has helped local communities to develop culturally relevant reading materials in local and minority languages. Its Local Language Publishing Programme has produced more than 500 new titles in 25 languages, of which more than five million copies have been distributed.
Room to Read runs four holistic, interlinked programmes: Reading Room has established 11,000 children’s libraries in communities where poverty, ethnicity, or other barriers put children at an educational disadvantage.
    School Room helps to build safe, child-friendly schools for children. The Girls’ Education programme enables girls to pursue and complete a secondary education. Finally, the Local Language Publishing programme, the focus of the 2011 UNESCO Literacy Prize, ensures that children and teachers have access to a variety of reading materials so they can engage with books in an amusing and meaningful way.
    The Room to Read publishing programme arose from the lack of children’s books in local languages. It provides varied content at appropriate levels (from picture books to story cards to flip books) covering gender equality, the environment, health, art, beginning words and basic vocabulary, morals and values, family life, folktales, rhymes and poems. Today it publishes 5,000 to 10,000 copies per new title and distributes them to its network of schools and libraries and other organizations. One of the top publishers of local language children’s books in Nepal and Cambodia, its Nepal books have won the “Children’s Book of the Year Award” and in Laos, the “Laos Book Excellence Awards” in both 2008 and 2009. Because the local language books are printed and published in-country, costs are extremely low - approximately US$1 per book.
    All books are created within the respective countries.
    Local writers and illustrators are selected to develop new culturally-relevant children’s books. Some stories are adapted from local folktales; others are sourced from writing competitions sponsored and facilitated by Room to Read, which promote literacy as a culture of writing and not just reading. National book development committees in each country consisting of government officials, curriculum experts, authors, illustrators and Room to Read staff serve as advisory boards to evaluate and select manuscripts. Books are often tested with local children, to elicit comments on plot, character, language and suitability for the target age group.
    “Stories have a major role in human history” says Ms. Vasanthy Thayavaran, an author with Room to Read’s Local Language Publishing program in Sri Lanka. “In my culture, grandmothers traditionally practiced oral storytelling within the family, but times have changed. We now need to fill in that storytelling gap by giving children books which can be their companions forever. It is one of the happiest moments in your life, as an author, when you see books being read by the children you intended them for.”
    http://www.roomtoread.org/
    Jean O’Sullivan