The theme of our 2021 Reading Together Campaign this year was “Empathy to Action”, and this year Reading Panda has partnered with MYReaders to give back to the community and donated a selection of our new picture books to benefit their children.
Empowering children to read is a topic very close to our hearts at Reading Panda, and we were fortunate to meet MYReaders, an organisation in Malaysia who is doing a lot of good work in the community to help children learn to read through remedial literacy programmes.
Did you know 46% of Malaysian students do not meet the minimum proficiency level in international Reading Tests? MYReaders is a non-profit organisation that empowers children to learn to read through communities. We spoke to their co-founder and deeply resonated with their vision that “One day, every child in Malaysia will be able to read.” They work closely with underprivileged families & underserved schools, teachers and communities in various parts of Malaysia.
This May, our books were distributed to their children at The Literacy Hub, a community-based initiative that involves volunteers reading one-on-one with a child on a weekly basis. The children there have been on a dedicated journey to learn how to read with MYReaders since the beginning of the year, and these books will be given as gifts to the children to celebrate their well-deserved efforts!
“Illiteracy is often seen as something to be ashamed of” – we wish children would no longer need to feel ashamed. We hope our picture books will bring smiles to some children’s faces and encourage them to continue to learn and love reading!
To read more about the Effects of Illiteracy and Malaysia’s illiteracy situation, please check out this earlier post by MYReaders.
Thank you also to all the participants to our Reading Together Campaign this year for sharing your empathy-related experiences, and congratulations to the winners who got our Empathy Themed Boxes!
