RSS Print Email

Liberty Hall Receives Books and Reading Software

The Children’s collection of the Garvey Research/Reference Library, housed at Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey was given a boost by literacy advocates “Read Across Jamaica”, who recently donated eleven Afro-Centric children’s books to the facility. The group also donated a copy of the world’s leading magnification and reading software, Zoom Text, in response to the special request of Ms. Donna McFarlane, Director/Curator of Liberty Hall. Zoom Text will assist in the instruction of children and adults in the Garvey After-School Programme and in Liberty Hall’s new OAS supported literacy programme.

Zoom Text displays high-definition text that enables computer users to recognize words effortlessly. The programme is equipped with neoSpeech synthesizers which allows for documents and applications to be read aloud by friendly computer generated voices, right through the computer’s speakers. ZoomReader echoes keyboard typing by character or by word and includes "DocReader" for automatic reading of complete documents.

Moved by the kind gesture of Read Across Jamaica, Director/Curator of Liberty Hall, Ms. Donna McFarlane stated, “We are thrilled to be a part of the Read Across Jamaica initiative as it is in keeping with Garvey’s message of “One must never stop reading”. “The books and the software will assist us to further equip adults and children from the surrounding communities with reading skills”, she added.

The Brainchild of Janice Wisdom, Read Across Jamaica aims to introduce creative and interactive methods of reading to foster a love for this essential skill among children. It is a global initiative focussed on improving access to literary resources for children in the Caribbean. An American of Jamaican parentage, Wisdom’s idea for this foundation stemmed from findings of a research she conducted on the Jamaican education system while enrolled at the University of Maryland in 2003. In a bid to address concerns of the alarming rate of illiteracy, Wisdom saw the foundation as a means of contributing to the advancement of education. Read Across Jamaica was initiated in March 2004 with the group’s first donation of 50 Dr. Seuss books to Siloah Primary School in St. Elizabeth.

Wisdom stated that the May 2-8 visit to Jamaica was timed to coincide with Education Week and Child’s month and took them to institutions in Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, Kingston, St. Ann and Trelawny. Liberty Hall was one of over 15 institutions visited during this period. Of note was their stop in the hurricane ravaged community of Portland Cottage, Clarendon, where not only educational but basic food supplies were distributed.

Among the literacy ambassadors who accompanied Mrs. Wisdom on this journey was Folasade Scott, an Educational Psychology Major at the University of California, Berkeley Campus and Hip Hop/ Reggae/Dancehall Dub Poet, Cherri Poet, a Jamaican who resides in the United States. Cherri Poet delivered an entertaining and riveting performance from her impressive repertoire of poems to children in Liberty Hall’s Garvey After-School Programme.