The gaps in society continue to grow, causing more underprivileged children to not have access to learning material. Shriya Gattapally and Jheel Gandhi are 16-year-olds from Fremont, California. With their entrepreneurial mindsets, they were able to create Spreading Literacy to Children (SLTC), a teen-led nonprofit based in the Bay Area.
From research, Shriya and Jheel learned that 65% of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education. However, students who aren’t at a proficient reading level by 4th grade aren’t likely to continue their education after high school. In order to get to that ultimate goal, students need to build a strong foundation at a young age which they can do by developing their reading and writing skills.
Shriya and Jheel realized how many people do not have equal access to literacy, causing a large gap. This inspired them to make a change, where they could motivate more students to be interested in reading and writing, and to allow underprivileged children to have proper access to learning material.
SLTC was officially created on March 27, 2020, and since then, they have spread awareness about the gaps in literacy, since knowing the facts is the first step toward addressing the problem at-hand. SLTC has also supported other non-profits, and have helped several others set up their own book drives where they live, including in California, North Carolina, and Morocco. Due to COVID-19, they have had the time to reach out to many authors and ask for donations.
SLTC plan to donate books to libraries, elementary schools, hospitals, and shelters. They also want to hold workshops at local libraries where they would read to children to plant a seed of interest so they're motivated to take that extra step to grab a book and well, read it! SLTC hope to achieve this goal with the help of their community.
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