美国阅读空间：培养阅读习惯

美国阅读空间：培养阅读习惯

美国阅读空间计划因其开展通过地方语言出版物促进性别平等和识字而获得了2011年联合国教科文组织孔子教育奖

    
    自2000年以来，超过510万的儿童通过“阅读空间”项目有获得了更好的教育。其中包括：
    ● 建立学校1442所
    ● 建立图书馆1246个
    ● 出版原版儿童读物：553种
    ● 分发的当地/英文书籍:940万册
    ● 参与女童教育项目人数：10590

    “改变世界自教育儿童开始”，这也是非政治组织阅读空间的信条。该组织与地方社区、合作组织以及政府合作，培养小学生的文化技能和阅读习惯，支持女童读完中学，学习在学校及校外生活所需的生活技能。该组织的计划“通过当地语言出版物促进性别平等和识字”荣获2011年联合国教科文组织孔子教育奖。
    阅读空间于2000年在美国旧金山成立，主要在九个国家，即孟加拉、柬埔寨、印度、老挝、尼泊尔、南非、斯里兰卡、越南和赞比亚开展活动，帮助当地社区用当地少数民族语言开发和文化相关的阅读材料。该组织的地方语言出版计划已经出版了25种语言的超过500种书籍，发行量超过500万册。
    阅读空间开展了四项综合的、相互关联的项目：该组织在儿童由于贫困、少数民族或其他壁垒而处于弱势的社区建立了11000所社区儿童图书馆。学校阅读屋计划帮助建立安全且儿童友好型学校。女童教育计划使女童能有机会读完中学。该计划也是2011年联合国教科文组织扫盲奖关注的重点，它旨在确保儿童和教师能够获得各种阅读材料，以便能够以一种轻松且有意义的方式使用书籍。
    由于缺乏用当地语言编写的儿童读本，“阅读空间”出版项目应运而生。其出版物的内容与各教育阶段相适应（从图画书到故事书再到活页书），涵盖性别平等、环境、健康、艺术、启蒙单词和基础词汇、道德、价值、家庭生活、民间故事、诗韵等。如今，每本数的书的出版量达到5000到10000册，并分发至学校图书馆及其他机构。它也是尼泊尔和柬埔寨国内最大的用当地语言出版儿童读物的出版社之一，其尼泊尔课本曾获得“年度儿童读本”奖，2008年和2009年在老挝获得“老挝优秀图书奖”。由于当地语言图书的印刷和出版都在本国进行，所以成本非常低，接近1美元一本。
    所有的书籍都在相关国家内部编订，由经筛选出来的当地作者和插图绘画者来编写与文化现状相关的儿童读物。其中有些故事改编自民间故事，有的则来自由“阅读空间”自主举办的作文大赛中的作品，这一做法不仅推进阅读扫盲，同时也促进了协作。由各国政府官员、课程专家、作者、插画作者以及“阅读空间”的工作人员组成的国家书籍开发委员会作为顾问理事会评估和选择书稿。通常当地儿童对书籍进行测试，对其情节、特点、语言及目标群体的适合度给出评价。
    “故事在人类历史上扮演着重要角色”，斯里兰卡的Vasanthy  Thayavaran夫人如是说。她是“阅读空间”地方语言出版物项目的作者之一。“在我的传统文化中，祖母都会给全家口传故事，但时代变化了。口传故事消失了，但是我们需要通过书籍来弥补这一空缺，当你看到你为孩子们编写的书籍正在被其阅读时，这是你一生中最快乐的时光。”
   
    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