All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development Unveils $6 Million Literacy Grant and Prize Competition

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development announced today a second round of funding to unearth and champion technologies for improving child literacy. The global grant and prize competition seeks innovative ideas that leverage the transformative power of technology to leapfrog existing infrastructure challenges and empower children to read.

In addition to a second round of grant funding, the Enabling Writers prize is the first of several themed prizes to be launched throughout the competition to amplify the overall initiative. A $100,000 prize will be awarded to the organization or individual that develops a software solution to help writers create reading materials in local languages for children in developing countries. 

The grant and prizes will shine light on the innovators and bring to the fore new ideas that are necessary for literacy to be realized for the millions of children who cannot read or write.

"Literacy is the cornerstone of economic and social development—171 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all students in low-income countries left school with just basic reading skills, yet millions of children lack access to necessary tools," said Christie Vilsack, Senior Advisor for International Education for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development has taken on this challenge, and can strengthen global literacy rates with the help of solvers from around the world."

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, established in 2011 as a partnership between USAID, World Vision and the Australian Government, aims to catalyze the creation and expansion of scalable, low-cost education tools and initiatives to improve literacy for early-grade students. 

The global initiative focuses on sourcing, accelerating, and measuring the impact of mobile and technology-based innovations with the potential to transform the learning process and classroom experience at a personal, community, and national level.  

In 2012, the first All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development grant competition funded 32 pilot projects in 22 countries.

To learn more about All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, the grant competition, and the Enabling Writers prize go to AllChildrenReading.org.

SOURCE World Vision

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