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First Person
In Liberia, USAID
Learning Resource
Centers and an African
story collection revive
the joy of reading
Volunteer Helps Transform Children Into Readers
Photo: USAID\ Nena Terrell
Peace Corps Response Volunteer Gloria
Reichmann (left) organizes books and
supplies with a local staff member at a
USAID Learning Resource Center in
Gbarnga, Liberia
“One person can make a big
difference in a small amount
of time,” said Peace Corps
volunteer Gloria Reichmann,
who assisted USAID
Learning Resource Centers
in Liberia.
With a wide grin, twinkling eyes, and no-nonsense nature of a
retired school teacher, Peace Corps Response Volunteer Gloria
Reichmann welcomes students into the USAID Learning Resource
Center in Bong County, Liberia. She points out story books and
explains the new “Reading Lion’s Club”- read 10 books and receive
a pencil, candy, and your name recorded on the reading room wall.
Excitement erupts when children see a collection of Macmillan-
Africa stories about children like themselves. A favorite - The Big
Bad Snake - tells the story of Yaw, a boy who saved his small
village by outsmarting the largest and meanest snake in the forest.
Reichmann reads a story, then asks the children to read it. Studies
show that when teachers read aloud student performance increases
by 10 correct words per minute. A USAID-sponsored early grade
reading assessment found students in grade two are reading only
18 correct words per minute - in the United States, second grade
students reading less than 70 words per minute are considered at
severe risk. In Liberia, where adult literacy is 52%, many schools
rely on volunteer or poorly-trained teachers with limited reading
skills.
The ability to read determines a student’s ability to learn and
advance in life, but school books are a precious commodity in
Liberia. Most teachers write passages from the one textbook they
possess or a book they have borrowed onto a blackboard, and the
children learn by copying it into their notebooks.
Six Learning Resource Centers were established under a USAID
accelerated learning program, which allows those with disrupted
schooling due to 14 years of war to complete six years of
elementary school in three. Reichmann was assigned to Liberia
as a librarian to work with local staff at the USAID learning centers
to organize and catalog books, direct carpenters to assemble
bookshelves, create comfortable reading spaces, and bundle books
for delivery to rural schools.
Piles of books had overwhelmed the capacity of the staff who
had never developed programs to promote reading. Reichmann’s
passion and professional expertise demonstrate that libraries can
be more than book repositories - they can serve communities.
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