Borrego Springs Rotary sponsored one Rotarian (Martha Deichler) and two local Interact students to travel to Mongolia this past July on a service journey to deliver school supplies to an Interact Club in Ulaanbaatar (the only one in all of Mongolia). This Ulaanbaatar Interact Club is working with their local Rotary Club in supporting Early Childhood Education/Literacy in the many communities lacking pre-schools, kindergartens and special needs education. Their goal is to introduce and increase literacy for all pre-school and kindergarten students as well as orphans through the acquisition and subsequent translation of picture books, audio books, Braille books and video books. Their established program is called, "Let's Read" and is expanding every year throughout Mongolia as the need for early education is huge. Statistics show that 60% of students do not make the lottery to attend kindergarten.
"Let's Read" also contains a parent/teacher training component for reading with younger children.
Our grant will support the purchase of picture books and Easy-to-Read books for the "Let's Read" program as well as postage to send the books to Ulaanbaatar.
We are in direct contact with the Ulaanbaatar Rotary and Interact Club and student visits are in the planning stages for our high schools in the 2018-2019 school year.
Our close relationship with Mongolia stems from a sister park partnership we have between the Anza Borrego Desert State Park and the Ilk Nart Nature Reserve outside Ulaanbaatar. Over the past 10 years, many of our park rangers and scientists have traveled to Mongolia as ambassadors for preserving the natural beauty of this mystical country. Now, our Interact Club would like to expand our partnerships to include literacy for all.
The Borrego Springs Rotary Club is actively involved in everything involving our students in Borrego Springs, a very small and close knit community. Our Rotary Club members will be involved in the entire process though their active involvement, their invite for Interact students to attend Rotary for updates and even footwork if necessary.
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