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Literacy is the foundation for all future learning yet a quality education remains out of reach for millions of children around the world. Over the years, access to primary schooling has improved, but educational quality remains a major issue. Many children in primary school aren’t learning the basics, the result of inadequate teachers, funds and school infrastructure challenges.

Room to Read envisions a world in which all children can pursue a quality education that prepares them to be fulfilled and make positive change – in their families, communities and the world. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read transforms the lives of millions of children through education, creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality.

Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity®

Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity® is the 2nd oldest existing collegiate historically Black Greek Letter Fraternity and the 1st intercollegiate Fraternity incorporated as a national body. The Fraternity has over 150,000 members with 700 undergraduate and alumni chapters in nearly every state of the United States, and international chapters in Nigeria, South Africa, the West Indies, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea and Japan.

Through its worldwide prominence, Kappa Alpha Psi® has had a global impact on events which affect our local communities as well as places around the globe. Local chapters of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity® participate in community outreach activities to feed the homeless, provide scholarships to young people matriculating to college, serve as mentors to young men, participate in blood drives and serve as hosts of seminars for public health awareness to name a few.

Room to Read is partnering with Kappa Alpha Psi® for the Hands-on-Books Program, the first domestic Room to Read project in the United States. The program should reach between 500-700 students around the country by June 2020, as both Room to Read and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, partner to improve the love of reading and literacy skills of students nationally.

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Hands-on-Books Program

There are over 150,000 members in Kappa Alpha Psi in 12 Provinces nationwide. Each Province will nominate three chapters to participate in the program that will partner with an under-resourced primary school in their area.

Room to Read will train these undergraduate volunteers, and each month participating chapters will introduce a Room to Read South Africa storybook title to the elementary school by reading the books aloud, conducting reading activities and donating 10 copies to the school's library. The books Room to Read is providing are developed by local South African authors and illustrators in one of the 42 languages we have published around the world and have the power to foster global citizenship for children in the United States.

The program had a soft launch in Milwaukee on November 15, 2019, and officially launched January 2, 2020 in Las Vegas during the Annual National Founders' Day celebration with a national press conference. The program will run for 8 months in a pilot phase with the potential for extension and in April 2020, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc will host a Room to Read Day across its campuses around the nation, celebrating the Hands-on-Books program and the impact it has made around the United States.