Global Primary Care

Reach Out and Read and Family Literacy Lesotho

Reach Out and Read is a U.S.-based program founded at Boston Medical Center whose mission is to make literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care, so children grow up with books and a love of reading. In 2006 a pilot international site for Reach Out and Read was established at the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic outside Maseru. A second site has been founded at the Clinton HIV/AIDS Clinic at the national referral hospital, Queen Elizabeth II. New Reach Out and Read sites will be created in other Lesotho hospitals and health centers as books and funding become available.

The Reach Out and Read books were so enthusiastically received in Lesotho that a group of citizens founded Family Literacy Lesotho, whose mission is to encourage the development of beautiful children’s picture books in the Sesotho language in which the children of Lesotho can recognize themselves and their lives. Its first project was a nationwide contest that generated over 280 Sesotho stories for children, the best of which are being illustrated by local artists and prepared for publication in Lesotho.

Fund-raising target for Literacy Programs - $15,000