"LitWorld was founded in 2007 after Executive Director, Pam Allyn, renowned literacy educator and author, visited Kibera, an area of extreme poverty in Nairobi, Kenya. There, she experienced the urgent desire children had to read, write and share their stories, the barriers that stood in their way, and the amazing power of literacy to remove barriers.Inspired after her first visit to Kibera, Pam returned to New York and mobilized a group of friends and leaders to join her in building a new movement founded on the belief that literacy is a universal human right. They created a movement designed not only to further basic literacy, but to further productive literacy defined by dreams that can come true.
They have grown World Read Aloud Day from a simple call to action
to a program that rallies over 18 million people online and over 1
million people across 100 countries through community events. People
eagerly await the arrival of World Read Aloud Day and celebrate their
innovative ways of taking action. From a girl in Haiti marching down
her street with a sign advocating for her right to read, to the boy in
Iowa hearing his favorite author read to his class over video chat, to a mother in the Philippines proudly listening to her daughter read
aloud for the first time:
This is the LitWorld story."
