PRESS RELEASE – The annual Rainforest of Reading Festival organized by One World School House Foundation was held in March 2016 at Castries and Vieux-Fort.
This is the third year the festival, with support from St Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) was held in Saint Lucia.
Seventy-seven hundred (7,700) students from all seventy-four (74) primary schools on the island participated in the Reading Festival. The activity is endorsed by the Ministry of Education and held under the patronage of H.E Governor-General Dame Pearlette Louisy. The Rainforest of Reading is open to students in Grades 3-5.
The programme is designed to eradicate illiteracy in the countries where the festival is held, namely Grenada, Saint Lucia and Nevis. Organizers say their interest was spurred by the infrastructure damage caused by Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Tomas as well as the economic impact of the global recession on the region.
LUCELEC Corporate Communications Manager Roger Joseph says the One World School House Foundation’s Mission of education, youth empowerment and access to tools – like reading – to guarantee success is what compelled LUCELEC to support this initiative from inception.
“We’ve supported the reading festival over the past three years because we recognize many of the challenges at the upper primary and secondary school level we’re being asked to assist in responding to, have their genesis at the early childhood education level. We are also pleased that the festival focuses on increasing literacy and numeracy skills, key concepts and skills that should be grasped early on in a child’s life cycle to ensure they maximize educational opportunities,” he says.
The One World School House Foundation places sets of twelve (12) books from Canadian children’s book authors into each participating school. Over a three week period, students read the books on their own and in class before attending the Reading Festival where they meet the book authors and participate in a host of reading related activities.
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