Girls’ Clubs, Boys’ Clubs & Mothers’ Clubs
In 2009, MCI teamed with LitWorld, a New York-based NGO dedicated to improving literacy, to bring learning and personal enrichment opportunities to girls in the Millennium Cities. Together, we introduced adolescent girls in Kumasi, Ghana, and Kisumu, Kenya, to LitClubs, which offer welcoming environments to build literacy skills and connect with peers locally and worldwide, boosting self-esteem in the process.
MCI and LitWorld collaborated with the Kisumu Municipal Education Office to establish four Girls’ LitClubs in primary schools in Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city. An additional 15 Girls’ LitClubs were created the following year in junior highs in Kumasi, Ghana. LitWorld trained some 40 female teachers to serve as facilitators and shared a 45-lesson curriculum that helps girls read and write, while celebrating their strengths and empowering them as young adults. Two grants from the New York Community Trust enabled MCI to support the LitClubs in both cities, which had a tremendous impact on some 530 participating girls.
At the urgent request of the Kisumu LitClub facilitators, in the summer of 2012 MCI and the Municipal Education Office, together with LitWorld and students from Harvard Summer School, established three Boys’ LitClubs for boys at risk.