Hurricane Harvey Help: Long-Term Disaster Requires Long-Term Giving

Hurricane Harvey Help: Long-Term Disaster Requires Long-Term Giving

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alluvioni-texas Hurricane Harvey has crippled America’s fourth-largest city. This storm brought in heavy rainfall to Houston, Texas  six trillion gallons of water, or 24 inches, in the past 48 hours, as reported by some media outlets Monday. Many residents have been displaced and some even lost their lives due to the devastating storm, with several reports stating that roughly 30,000 residents will be needing shelter and the rain has not stopped while the water continues to rise. If you would like to help those affected by the storm, here’s what you should keep in mind. You can help right now The Red Cross said they depend on financial donations to help provide immediate relief. They have already set up a way to donate to victims with a simple text. Text the word HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation. You can also visit redcross.org or call 1- 800-RED CROSS. Americares The United Way has also announced a way to text a donation: Text UWFLOOD to 41444 to donate to the United Way Flood Relief Fund Donations to support The Salvation Army‘s Hurricane Harvey relief efforts can be made at helpsalvationarmy.org or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY. Give cash, not supplies Most charities prefer monetary donations. These are more flexible and cause less of a strain on the charity, allowing them to help more, USAID explained. “Unlike material donations, cash involves no transportation costs, shipping delays, or customs fees. It also enables relief organizations to spend more time providing aid by spending less time managing goods,” the organization explained on its website. Volunteer at shelters The American Red Cross in Texas has asked people to volunteer. The office announced on Friday that it would be training volunteers at their shelters through a “fast=track” course. The Salvation Army also announced it would be accepting volunteers to hand out supplies and food at shelters. Check for a local group in your area that is sending volunteers. Volunteer Houston has launched a VIRTUAL Volunteer Reception Center to aid non-profits and agencies in finding and deploying people to hard-site areas. Go local Grocery chain H-E-B plans to donate $100,000 toward Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. On Monday, all H-E-B, Central Market and Joe V’s Smart Shop stores across Texas launched a statewide tear pad campaign, giving customers an opportunity to support victims through donations of $1, $3, or $5, which can be added to their total grocery bill. The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund set up by Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, and administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Houston Food Bank and the Food Bank of Corpus Christi are asking for donations. Carter BloodCare covers hospitals in north, central and east Texas. To donate, call 877-571-1000or text DONATE4LIFE to 444-999. To help animals suffering from the disaster, visit the Houston Humane Society or the San Antonio Humane Society. The Texas Diaper Bank in San Antonio is asking for diapers and wipes, which can be dropped off in person or mailed to 5415 Bandera Road, Suite 504, San Antonio, Tex., 78238. Check the charity Before you donate to a charity, make sure you know where your aid is going. The Center for International Disaster Information recommends checking with a charity monitoring organization like GiveWell, Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, or the Better Business Bureau before donating. Make sure your donation is secure by going through an organization’s official website or sending a check in the mail. Charity Navigator says you should never donate over the phone, email or unknown social media pages, as these are easier for scammers to target. Donate Blood AABB, which coordinates a task force to manage blood collection efforts during disasters, put out a call on Sunday for blood donations in the aftermath of Harvey. Those interested in donating blood may contact the following organizations: AABB: 301-907-6977 America’s Blood Centers American Red Cross: 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) Armed Services Blood Program: 703-681-5979 Online-Only Organizations GoFundMe has created a page with all of its Harvey-related campaigns. Airbnb is waiving service fees for those affected by the disaster and checking in between Aug. 23 and Sept. 1, and can guide users in creating a listing where their home is offered to victims free. YouCaring has a fund-raising page set up by J. J. Watt of the Houston Texans with a goal of $1 million. GlobalGiving’s Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund supports local organizations by helping with “immediate needs for food, fuel, clean water, hygiene products and shelter.” houstonflood-82717 (1)
Celebrate International Literacy Day!

Celebrate International Literacy Day!

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The Power of People: Start a Literacy Movement

International Literacy Day (ILD) shines a spotlight on global literacy needs, which goes hand in hand with ILA’s mission: literacy for everyone, everywhere. See how the Philippines transformed their literacy rate and improved the lives of Filipinos of all ages.

International Literacy Day is celebrated annually by the International Literacy Association (ILA) and is designed to focus attention on literacy issues. ILA estimates that 780 million adults, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, do not know how to read and write. They also estimate that 94—115 million children worldwide do not have access to education. International Literacy Day is just one way the Association strives to increase literacy around the world.

This year, ILA is focusing on the Phillipines to promote the theme “The Power of People: Start a Literacy Movement,” which honors the countries triumph in promoting literacy to its citizens. Visit the ILD website to download the activity kit and instructions on building your own Little Free Library® to promote reading in your own community. We’re building one, too!

Join the global celebration, and be sure to let the International Literacy Association know how you celebrate. Share pictures and videos to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (using the official hashtag #ILD15), or send them to ILD@reading.org.

Beat the Summer Slide by reading

Beat the Summer Slide by reading

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Make sure kids have something to read during the summer — put books into children’s hands. Register with First Book and gain access to award-winning new books for free and to deeply discounted new books and educational materials or find other national and local programs and organizations that can help.

Get your local public library to sign kids up for summer reading before school is out.Invite or ask your school librarian to coordinate a visit from the children’s librarian at the public library near the end of the school year. Ask them to talk about summer activities, educational videos, and audio books at the library and to distribute summer reading program materials.

Get to know your community public library better. Find out if your public library is part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program, a grassroots effort to provide high-quality summer reading programs for kids. The theme for 2015 is Every Hero Has a Story. Colorín Colorado has tips for parents in English and in Spanish about visiting the local library. Or check out our top 9 reasons to rediscover your public library.

Let parents and kids know about the free summer reading incentive programs. Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! program has a Wimpy Kid summer reading challenge that kicks off on June 22nd. Jet Blue and Magic Tree House launch Soar with Reading on June 23. The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge encourages kids to log the minutes they spend reading and map their accomplishments. Kids can participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards, and enter to win prizes. With the Barnes & Noble Imagination’s Destination challenge, your child can earn a free book after reading eight books (and parents receive a summer reading kit full of activities). With the TD Bank Summer Reading Program, kids read and keep track of 10 books and can get $10 added to their Young Saver account.

Help kids build math and science skills over the summer. Share our Literacy in the Sciences series with families. Each one-page tip sheet (in English and Spanish) suggests easy hands-on activities as well as fiction and nonfiction books to extend the learning. In this section you’ll also find links to great science websites for kids, blogs about children’s science books, and links to PBS KIDS science programs and activities.

Encourage parents to start a neighborhood book club with other families this summer. It’s a great way to keep the summer learning social and low-key. Warmer weather can inspire some not-so-run-of-the-mill meeting places, too: a tent or picnic blanket in the backyard. If the book club catches on, it’s something to continue throughout the school year. PBS Parents has a wonderful collection of tips on how to start a club and encourage great discussions. Our special education blogger, June Behrmann, shares ideas (and title selections) for starting your own mother-daughter “accessible ” book club using print alternatives.

Suggest to parents that they set up a summer listening program which encourages their children to listen to written language. Research shows that some children with learning disabilities profit from reading the text and listening to it at the same time.

 

You can also find great activities at Reading Works.

Offer recommendations for active learning experiences. Check with your local department of parks and recreation about camps and other activities. Find out what exhibits, events, or concerts are happening in your town over the summer. Create a directory or calendar of local summer learning fun to share with your students and their families. (Be sure to note any costs involved.)

Let’s get our children reading and learning.

Read Aloud 15 MINUTES Partner Sign-Up

Read Aloud 15 MINUTES Partner Sign-Up

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Read Aloud 15 MINUTES Partner Sign-Up
Join over 2,000 partners across all 50 states who are committed to working with parents and caregivers to help their children achieve lifelong learning success.
We want individuals who work with organizations that reach parents with children from birth to age 8 to become Read Aloud 15 MINUTES Campaign Partners.

It’s free! Upon signing up, you gain access to all of the fun visual content, in English and Spanish, that the Read Aloud Campaign creates to help remind parents of the importance of daily reading aloud starting at birth. The Read Aloud Partner Toolkit archives all past campaign materials and is updated with new materials before our March, Summer and October campaign pulses. Four to six weeks prior to each campaign period, our new campaign materials will be made available exclusively to Read Aloud Campaign Partners.

Sign UP Today    i know how to read
Nepal needs our help…

Nepal needs our help…

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The damage is still being assessed after the devastating earthquake in Nepal, and death tolls continue to rise. This region is in desperate need of help right. Relief workers are facing challenges with knowing where to go: Most roads and buildings don’t exist on a map. But that’s a situation that’s changing, hour by hour, as thousands of volunteers around the world build a detailed digital atlas of the earthquake zone. Volunteers use aerial images from satellites to mark open spaces where helicopters or planes might land with supplies, highlight streets between towns and villages, and outline buildings that aid groups can use to guess where victims might be. Using OpenStreetMap technology—known as the “Wikipedia of maps”—they build continuously updated maps that can be used online or downloaded into navigation devices. Any mapping that people can contribute helps. If you need to know how to do it go here. Start mapping.

Nepal will need continued help in the weeks and months to come. In times of disaster, we often see the best of humanity as the entire world comes together to offer aid. Unfortunately, we can also see the worst as opportunists seize on the good nature of others to scam money. Her is a list of reputable organizations and people that you can support to help Nepal.

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From the time the earthquake hit till the time Jay Poudyal started this campaign,  He has visited several affected areas in and around Kathmandu.  He has also collected stories which he has be sharing here. “The most need I see are for the aftermath of this earthquake which is  rebuilding and helping people recover from loss of property and loved ones. The fund collected will be used to distribute supplies to the people who are directly affected over a period of time. These will range from water, food, medicines, blankets.” Help Nepal

AJWS Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund will ensure that thousands of people affected by this earthquake receive the support they desperately need. AJWS has been involved in disaster response in the developing world for many years. An emergency response team from the AmeriCares India office in Mumbai is headed to the impact zone and relief workers are preparing shipments of medical aid and relief supplies for survivors. You can support their efforts in Nepal. In Nepal, nearly 1 million children require humanitarian assistance, and UNICEF is on the ground working to provide critical aid to children and families. You can make a donation towards Nepal earthquake relief.

The love for reading is declining.

The love for reading is declining.

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The number of American children who say they love reading books for fun has dropped almost 10% in the last four years, according to a US study, with children citing the pressure of schoolwork and other distractions.

The survey of 2,558 US parents and children, carried out for children’s publisher Scholastic and managed by YouGov, found that only 51% of children said they love or like reading books for fun, compared to 58% in 2012, and 60% in 2010. According to the report, in 2014 37% of children said they like reading a little, and 12% said they did not like it at all.

Researchers have found a sharp decline in reading enjoyment after the age of eight. Sixty-two percent of children between six and eight say they either love or like reading books for fun, but this percentage drops to just 46% for children between the ages of nine to 11, with the figure at 49% for 12-14-year olds, and 46% again for 15-17-year-olds. “Reading enjoyment declines sharply after age eight,” reported the publisher.
“I do like reading, but it’s not at the top of things I like to do,” said one 12-year-old boy, responding to the survey. An 11-year-old girl told researchers: “In second and third grade, I read above my grade level and I felt really proud of that. But then the books got bigger and bigger, and it got more intimidating.”

The fifth edition of the biannual Kids and Family Reading Report found more than four in 10 children (44%) said they like reading more now that they are older, with nearly three in 10 (29%) – especially boys (33%, compared to 24% of girls) – liking reading more when they were younger. Sixty per cent of the children who enjoyed reading more when they were younger put this down to the fact there are “so many other things that I now enjoy more than reading”, and 47% blamed the fact that “I have to read so much for school that I just don’t feel like reading for fun”, with others citing the fact they now have to read on their own, rather than being read to.

Scholastic also surveyed the parents of children between the ages of zero and five for the first time this year in an attempt to discover what made children frequent readers. The report found that a six to 11-year-old child is more likely to be a frequent reader if they are currently read aloud to at home, if they were also read aloud to five to seven days a week before starting nursery, and if they are less likely to use a computer for fun.

According to the report, 54% of children up to the age of five are read to at home five to seven days at week, with this declining to 34% of six to eight-year-olds, and 17% of nine to 11-year-olds. But 40% of six to 11-year-olds who are not read to told researchers they wish their parents had continued reading aloud to them.

Overall, 51% of children aged six to 17 were reading a book for fun when surveyed. But three quarters of parents surveyed said they wished their child would read more books for fun, while 71% agreed that “I wish my child would do more things that did not involve screen time”.

“Our research shows that providing encouragement and time both in school and at home for children of all ages to enjoy books they choose to read will help them discover the power and joy of reading,” said Scholastic’s chief academic officer Francie Alexander. “These tactics will also help to motivate kids to read more books, which will improve their skills and open a world of possibilities for them in the future.”