While the cumulative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Samoa included disruption to schools this year, it also opened avenues for others to assist the underprivileged.

Not-for-profit organisation Brown Girl Woke (B.G.W.) rose to the occasion in these difficult times through its The Read Aloud Project, in a bid to address the dropping literacy rate in Samoa, especially amongst boys.

Since the start of the project, the organisation has distributed about 10,000 books to 10 schools, which comprise six primary schools and four colleges.

B.G.W. Director and founder, Maluseu Doris Tulifau told the Samoa Observer that their literacy program helps promote literacy in Samoa.

“Brown Girl Woke runs after school programs to help promote education, especially literacy as we know our literacy rates are very low, especially for young boys,” she said.

According to Maluseu, her organisation hires university students to implement and roll out the program in order to give back to the community.

“That is the mission of Brown Woke Girl: to educate, train and empower youth of Samoa on critical issues in Samoa,” she said.

Speaking on The Read Aloud Project, Maluseu said they get their books from a reading program in the U.S. of Hawaii.

“Our biggest donation came from a reading program in Hawaii called Read Aloud, I worked for them for two years,” she added. 

“The reading program in Hawaii helped low income families that didn’t have access to books, especially schools.”

And the schools that the program targets are not chosen randomly, according to Maluseu, who says the recipient institutions either don’t have a library or possess very little books for their students.

“All the primary schools we donated to either didn’t have a library or had very little books,” he said. 

“Our program was able to fill their libraries with great books and start a program once a week, where students come in and we read books to students and students display their book reports and share what they like about their books. 

“We also give school supplies as an incentive for kids that read the most books or teachers select students that have improved.”

The long-term objective of the BGW program is to change students’ attitudes to reading both in school and at home. 

And Maluseu says that 12 months on since the start of the program they are beginning to see some results.

“So far each school in the program has seen a huge difference in wanting to read and reading at home,” she said.

“We also give incentive to students that read most books by doing book reports. 

“We have students share reading 50 books and we also test the kids to make sure they are reading the books and everyone passes with flying colors.”

The program’s benefits have also trickled down to the schools that participated in the program this year. According to Maluseu, some schools are now hiring librarians after becoming recipients of the book donation program, which augurs well for the future in terms of improving Samoa’s literacy rates.

The after-school component of the program, which enables adult supervision and mentorship of the participating children, is one area that Maluseu says she has pride in.

“I believe in after school programming so we can have more adult supervision with our kids and more mentors,” she said.

“Extra-curricular activities help students learn discipline outside the classroom and learn with fun. 

“We have been able to make libraries for schools, make students’ stats in literacy go higher and help schools hire librarians.”

Primary schools that have already been the recipients of book donations courtesy of the B.G.W. program include Malie, Afega, Vaigaga, Tuana’I, Salelesi, Vaimea as well as the Papauta, Leifiifi, Faleata and Seventh Day Adventist colleges.