Readathon 2020 encourages children in the UK to help less fortunate children in India learn to read whilst reading books themselves.

With more than 300 million learners in India out of school due to the lockdown we are doing everything we can to ensure their education continues. Many of these children are first-generation students from extremely poor households, which makes them particularly vulnerable to interruptions in their education. If the current situation continues, inequality will increase, and social mobility will decrease. Our digital interventions are a vital way to reduce the impact.

All Pratham education programmes have switched to using digital resources. Our cleverly named Karona, Thodi Masti, Thodi Padhai initiative brings fun and creative activities to young learners. Connecting with our communities in a novel way has seen increased participation of parents in their child’s learning journey.

Not only are we working with our own beneficiaries, but we have been supporting 14 Indian State Governments and 230 other NGO’s with digital learning content. Meaning we are reaching over 130,000 families. Whilst we’ve done a lot through WhatsApp we have embraced the challenges of working in a country where technology and digital literacy are not available in every household; in Delhi we have supported the Government to set up a system that invites parents to give a missed call on a dedicated phone number and the callers receive an instant call back with Pratham’s activities they can do with their child.

Your contributions through the Readathon will enable Pratham to provide educational content and virtual outreach for those children in this time of desperate need. We invite you to join Readathon 2020.