a proposal by

CAELA & FRANCHESCA

LITERACY FOR
KEIKI
MARYKNOLL ENGLISH 11

project
A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
FOR THE ILLITERATE
PROJECT OVERVIEW
OBJECTIVE
Literacy For Keiki is a nonprofit organization that strives to
provide books for children in homeless shelters and for
public schools that have an insufficient amount of books for
their students. Many children in Hawaii suffer from
illiteracy due to poor education in some public schools. They
also lack the opportunity to learn grammar and vocabulary
as many households in Hawaii do not practice speaking
proper English. Our plan is to collect book donations from
others and to start a GoFundMe, an option for those who
want to contribute but do not have books to donate. This
money will be used to buy both new and second-hand books
to give away. We will organize our first book drive sometime
in March and we plan to hold one at least once a month for
the following two months. Our hope is to encourage kids to
read–not only to improve their literacy, but to also
emphasize how it can benefit their mental health, as it is
shown that reading as little as 6 minutes a day can reduce
stress.
 STATEMENT OF NEED
The issue that we are addressing is the lack of literacy in children,
especially in Hawaii. With people here regularly speaking pidgin, many
kids in Hawaii do not know how to form proper English sentences. Kids
come into elementary school having a hard time getting through chapter
books, and may become discouraged to read or pick up another book. The
kids of Hawaii will benefit from the donations by being able to choose the
books that they are interested in and fit their reading level. Those who
are willing to contribute can also benefit from this by donating old books
they do not want and giving to a good cause.

This issue of illiteracy has not yet been fully addressed because many kids
in Hawaii who have low literacy levels are unaware that are less skilled in
writing and speaking proper English. One person who has helped provide
books for kids who don’t have access to them is Maria Keller and her
organization, Read Indeed. Maria has donated over 1,000 books to many
countries across the world. However, we feel that simply donating books
is not enough. We need to also encourage kids to read by showing them
that there are other benefits to reading other than just increasing their
literacy levels and skills.

PROJECT ACTIVITY &

METHODOLOGY
Our group chose to address this issue of illiteracy because we believe
that reading can help many students improve their grammar, vocabulary,
and reading skills. We also believe that reading can improve a person’s
overall wellbeing, as reading reduces stress, creates mental flexibility,
and allows a person to explore the depths of their imagination. As a
group, we hope to spread our passion for books to others who have yet to
experience the joys of reading.
 EVALUATION
Our quantitative goal for this Solutionary project is to collect at least 500
book donations and to provide good-quality reading books that are
appropriate for each grade level to at least 3 public schools and at least
one homeless shelter. To accomplish this, we will host a book drive–either
at Maryknoll Community Center, a park, or another venue–during
multiple weekends, and start a GoFundMe to collect money donations
from those who still want to help but do not have books to donate. We
will use that money to buy new and second-hand books to include in our
book donations. We will also create bookmarks to hand out promoting our
project, goal, and the importance of reading and its impact on mental
health.

DISSEMINATION
To communicate our work to the public, we plan to create a website
for our Solutionary project and to hang up flyers around town. We
will also try to promote our book drives at our local churches, as
well as have someone promote it in a Maryknoll Sway. When we
launch our first book drive, we will also create a social media
account to share our progress and to also get the word out about
our project to the public.
 BUDGET
As of now, we plan to find a venue that will be willing to let us hold our
book drives there for free. Having a venue is necessary because we need a
place that is accessible for everyone who wants to donate books.
However, if we cannot find a place for free, it is possible that we may
need some money to rent out a venue for our book drives. We also plan to
buy a laminator, funded with our own money, which will be used to make
the bookmarks to give out during the book drive.