News and Media

CTV News: OWSH gains national attention

Need to read: Couple making a difference one book at a time.

MICOUD, ST. LUCIA

On the east coast of St. Lucia, far from tourist hotels, is the small community of Micoud. It’s where about 15,000 people live including OneWorld Schoolhouse board member Leonise François. Her advocacy for the two high schools and seven small primary schools in this remote district is understandable – Micoud is where Leonise was born and raised, the place where she learned to love reading. Some years later, she earned a Master’s degree in Education at McGill, taught high school in Oshawa and eventually became St. Lucia’s Deputy Chief Education Officer. Despite recently retiring, her energy for literacy development hasn’t diminished. In fact, Leonise is the Country lead for Rainforest of Reading Festivals while co-ordinating the distribution of OWSH book donations. How she bridged two school districts – one in Canada and the other in her homeland – was part of a story by reporter John Vennavally-Rao and broadcast on CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme.

No medium found for URL https://​vimeo​.com/​1​4​5​5​21029

Video originally broadcast on May 25, 2015. © 2016 Bell Media


And the Winner in Montserrat is....
Marlaina White (Left) announces the Second Annual Rainforest of Reading Award to Illustrator Jan Dolby (Middle) and Author Joyce Grant for "Gabby."

At the moment that we persuade a child, any child to cross...that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever.

BARACK OBAMA

It is by acts and not ideals that people live.

ANATOLE FRANCE
Author (1844-1924)

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

MARTIN TUPPER
Author (1810-1889)
Challenging literacy development
Although English is the official language of St. Lucia, Krewyol is spoken as much or more outside the classroom.

I read. I travel. I become.

DEREK WALCOTT
St. Lucian author & 1992 Nobel Laureate

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

WILLIAM JAMES
Philosopher, Psychologist (1842-1910)

Life is too deep for words so don't try to describe it, just live it.

C. S. Lewis
Author, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Out of this world
After reading "Postcards from Outer Space' a student in Montserrat is inspired to be the next Chris Hadfield.

Too many people grow up. That's the trouble with the world.

WALT DISNEY
(1901-1966)
Find 52: The Road to Reading in Grenada
In February 2015, Richard ran right around Grenada, a distance of 52 miles. 52 "Mile Captains" raised $40,000.

If we want to make this world a better place, then we have to become better ourselves. There is no easy route.

DALAI LAMA
It's a long story
Books packed by kids in Ontario for their peers in the Caribbean travel 1,800 kilometres by road then another 5,275 kilometres by container ship.

Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.

KOFI ANNAN
Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006)

If you get the right [words] in the right order, you might nudge the world a little.

Sir Tom Stoppard
Playwright

The future is always beginning now. Each moment is a place you've never been.

MARK STRAND
Poet (1934-2014)

Reading brings us unknown friends.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Novelist (1799-1850)

Start some kind words on its travels. There is no telling where the good it may do will stop.

Sir Wilfred Grenfell
Humanitarian, Medical Missionary (1865-1940)

All I know is what I have words for.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you believe what you read...you can, quite literally, believe anything.

NORTHROP FRYE
Professor, Philosopher (1912-1991)