Education: Unlocking Opportunities Through Literacy and Learning
Education is the key to social and economic opportunity, and literacy is at its core. READ Global works with rural communities across South Asia to create sustainable learning ecosystems where people of all ages can develop essential skills, expand their knowledge, and build brighter futures. By integrating literacy into broader educational and economic development initiatives, READ ensures that learning is both accessible and transformative.
“I have changed in so many ways. My self-confidence has increased knowing that I can now read and write. I am more comfortable sharing my views.”
Kailashi, Participant, READ Center India
At the heart of this approach are READ Centers, which serve as hubs for lifelong learning, literacy development, and skills training. These Centers provide early childhood education, after-school programs, and tutoring to help children succeed in school while also offering adult literacy programs that empower individuals to navigate daily life with confidence. Our facilitators use interactive, activity-based lesson plans that strengthen literacy and numeracy skills while fostering critical thinking and problem-solving.
Key Education & Literacy Programs:
- Adult Literacy Courses– Promotes habit of reading, and study groups give villagers a second chance to learn basic skills that can change their lives. Programming is centered on creating a culture of learning.
- Digital Literacy Strengthening– Equips youth and women with essential digital skills, empowering them to confidently navigate online environments, access information, and leverage technology for learning, communication, and economic opportunities.
- Practical Answers – Ensures that newly literate individuals have access to reading materials relevant to their daily lives—such as agriculture, health, and financial literacy—so they can continue learning in practical ways.
- Functional Literacy Promotion in Bhutan – Promotes and improves the reading literacy of children between the ages of six and twelve years old with funding from the Magic Library Foundation. Enhances reading environments at school libraries and READ Centers and the supply of children’s books, and holds literacy building sessions during school library hours, and reading recovery sessions at READ Centers for struggling readers.
- Grandparents’ Stories, My Pictures – Connects younger and older generations, encouraging children to preserve cultural traditions by transforming elders’ oral stories into illustrated books, strengthening both literacy and intergenerational learning.
- READing is Fun – Encourages early childhood literacy through parent involvement and interactive sessions that create joyful reading experiences at READ Centers and at home.
- Children’s programs: Engages children through specific children’s sections at READ Centers that feature books for early readers, and educational games and toys. Provides children’s programs such as art workshops, environmental education, and reading groups.
- Youth Programs: Supports school-age youth by loaning out school textbooks and tablets, and by offering support in tutoring, homework, and exam preparation.
- Health Awareness Sessions: Provides information on preventative health, such as sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, preventable diseases, and sexual and reproductive health.
- Financial literacy Training: Empowers women to effectively manage their finances—whether by tracking expenses and transactions or by gaining the skills needed to start and run small businesses.
Through these holistic programs, READ not only improves literacy rates but also ensures that education leads to greater opportunity, resilience, and self-sufficiency for individuals and their communities.
READ’s Approach to Literacy and Lifelong Learning
READ embraces literacy learning as a lifelong process, viewing the development of skills in reading, writing, and numeracy as a learning continuum that enables individuals to adapt to evolving context-specific demands. Guided by the Education 2030 vision of literacy and addressing the recommendations of the recent UNESCO report to the General Assembly of the United Nations, READ fosters inclusive learning environments that take into account learners’ motivations, prior knowledge, socio-emotional skills, and needs. By situating literacy within the broader context of active citizenship, pluralism, and social transformation, READ ensures that learning transcends the mastering of technical skills to become a meaningful and empowering process. READ’s programs focus in the development of basic proficiency in literacy and digital skills, preparing individuals to better navigate a digital environment, while promoting critical thinking, community empowerment, and sustainable development. By connecting literacy to socio-economic growth and need-based local demands, READ makes learning to a catalyst for personal and community transformation.
Our impact at a glance: A large majority of centers users (99% in Bhutan, 75% in India, and 67% in Nepal) said they would not otherwise have access to information they obtained at their READ Center. READ Centers are often the only resource of its kind in rural villages. Learn more about our impact data here.
