The Readora project aims to cultivate children's interest for reading in rural area by handing out STARS Readora Package ,which contains two selected books and stationeries.
Project Call-outs:
1. Customized by grades: booklists are tailor-made based on different ages.
2. Variation of Book selection: there are 244 types of book across Grade 1 to 6.
3. 41 types of books for each grade on average, which help children to access broader range of books
4. Encouraging exchanging, communication and interaction:
5. Guiding students to appreciate traditional Chinese culture : books related to Chinese traditional literature, social culture, science and arts, which takes up 33.55% of the full book list.
The Readora Story
In many occasions of home visits conducted by STARS team and volunteers, we found that there had been pressing needs for basic study materials and supplies for children from rural families. These children had no books to read except textbooks and wrote with broken pencils. Some organizations provided financial aids to their families but often times the money was spent on urgent things rather than books and stationeries. In 2011, STARS originally designed a financial assistance project offering a reading pack with basic study supplies such as notebooks, pens and pencils, dictionaries and children's books, to children in rural schools. At the Summer Reading Camp in Jianhe County, Guizhou Province in 2011, over 600 students from 4 local primary schools received the reading packs each worth about 80RMB. A year later in 2012, STARS named the project "Readora Project" and changed its focus to inculcate an interest and habit of reading among children in rural areas.