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. Watch the TODAY Show’s segment with Jenna Bush Hager about this incredible partnership:
Kappa Alpha Psi
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.
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.
Since then, the fraternity has donated books provided by Room to Read to elementary schools throughout the country and announced it is donating more than 32,000 new books to students in second through fourth grade to schools located within Kappa Alpha Psi's 12 regions in the United States.
