The U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean is proud to provide support to Hands Across the Sea, an organisation dedicated to raising the literacy levels of Eastern Caribbean children, from pre-school to secondary school.
Students at Richfond
Combined School enjoy a literacy-rich environment at school and at home.
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Recently two schools, Richfond Combined School and Bonne Terre Preparatory School were awarded the 2012/2013 Hands Across the Sea Literacy Awards for St. Lucia. The principals, teachers, and children at the schools have enthusiastically embraced Hands Across the Sea’s CLASS (Caribbean Literacy and School Support) programme, which has shipped 3,400 new books to Richfond Combined School and 1,150 new books to Bonne Terre Preparatory School over the past three years. The Hands Literacy Award comes with U.S. $1,000 in brand new books or other literacy assistance for each school.
Students celebrate at the presentation of the U.S. $1,000 Hands Literacy Award to Bonne Terre Preparatory School |
Also in the 2012/2013 school year, Gros Islet Secondary School was the recipient of a shared grant from the U. S. Embassy in Barbados, the William Ewing Foundation, and Hands Across the Sea. The grant allowed Gros Islet Secondary to receive over 400 brand new books for their school library. Principal Mrs. Delia Alcindor-Charles said, “We are pleased to have this wonderful selection of resources to help improve students’ motivation to read.”
Gros Islet Secondary School
students display some of the new books received from Hands and the U. S.
Embassy Grant.
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Hands Across the Sea has sent over 26,900 new and near-new books and 30 boxes of teaching resources to 34 schools, community libraries, and reading programs on St. Lucia, reaching over 8,000 children. The CLASS program, in concert with each school year’s Hands Wish Lists (school principals, teachers, and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers tell Hands which books they need), 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 and from the local community. On St. Lucia, Hands Across the Sea partners the U.S. Peace Corps, the U. S. Embassy in Barbados, and The Sandals Foundation, and works closely with the St. Lucia Ministry of Education. Hands Across the Sea also serves schools on the islands of Anguilla, Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.