Tete Morne Primary School wins literacy award

Recognizing the passion and dedication of the school’s principal, Nathalie Jude, to literacy and the creation of a vibrant school library, Tete Morne Primary School has been awarded the 2015-2016 Hands Across the Sea Literacy Award for Dominica.

The prize is U.S. $1,000 in brand new books or literacy support materials of the school’s choice.

Hands Across the Sea has been sending Tete Morne Primary School shipments of brand new, targeted, asked-for books every year since 2012, for a total of 1,092 books. Over the last two years, U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer Elena MacDonald has worked wonders in creating the school’s new library–the room has been painted, cleaned, shelving is in place, old books culled and the books sorted, color-coded, and shelve–and the library was officially opened in May 2015.

Hands Across the Sea’s Co-Founder and Executive Director Harriet Linskey said, “There is no doubt that improved literacy skills open the door to a better life, and Principal Nathalie Jude and her staff are demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting reading and writing by making their library an important part of the school.”

Hands Across the Sea, founded in 2007, has served 12,280 children at 87 Dominica primary and secondary schools and reading programs since 2008, sending a total of 51,430 new and near-new books. As part of each year’s Hands Wish Lists, educators specify the types of books most needed for their school.

“Our dream at Hands Across the Sea is that every primary and secondary school in Dominica have a first-class lending library filled with new books, books that have been requested by each school’s educators, and that the library become an integral, essential part of the school,” says Tom “T.L.” Linskey, Co-Founder of Hands Across the Sea. “We believe that to get children hooked on reading you have to put new, exciting, insanely great books in their hands–and that’s what we do, because Hands Across the Sea sends new books from the world’s best children’s book and educational publishers. We also believe that these rejuvenated school libraries need guidance to come into being, and they need support and monitoring to be sustained year after year. Our on-island Hands Literacy Link, Celia Sorhaindo, who is the Hands Across the Sea representative on Dominica, is known as someone who loves books, reading, and literacy. During her visits to schools she makes the dream of a fantastic library come true: she listens, she troubleshoots, she finds solutions, and she turns dreams into reality. I know that everyone on Dominica believes that children are precious, and that children are the future. Let’s make every child’s future a better one by giving them access to great books, literacy skills, and the chance to shine as bright as their new libraries!”

Hands Across the Sea is dedicated to raising the literacy levels of Eastern Caribbean children on the islands of Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.

Since founding the organization in 2007, Hands Across the Sea has shipped over 209,300 books to the region through its Caribbean Literacy and School Support (CLASS) program. The CLASS program, in concert with each school’s Hands Wish Lists (school principals, teachers, and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers tell Hands which books they need).

CLASS works in three ways: 1. Send Great New Books; 2. Create Borrowing Libraries (usually a school library); and 3. Foster Sustainability of the library through support at the school, the local community, and the hands-on efforts of on-island Hands Literacy Links. On Dominica, Hands Across the Sea partners with Rosalie Bay Resort, Scotiabank Bright Future, the Western Union Foundation and H.H.V. Whitchurch & Co., Ltd., Millennium Freight Services, Aeropost Network, Fastcash Caribbean, Ross University School of Medicine, while working closely with the U.S. Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education.