Bookshare is the thriving community it is today thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of all of you—members, parents, teachers, mentors, volunteers, partners, and friends. We’re so grateful for your continuous support and can’t wait to bring the gift of reading and educational opportunities to even more people. Please help us bring Bookshare to others who need our services by supporting our Silicon Valley Gives (SVGives) fundraiser on May 5, 2015.
In a story titled “USAID Grant Helps Create Marathi Books for Blind Kids,” Indian newspaper India-West highlights Benetech’s winning project in USAID’s “All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development” literacy innovations competition.
We are delighted to share that USAID, World Vision, and the Australian Government awarded Benetech a 2015 grant to improve literacy for primary school students who are blind in India. The new grant, under the three partners’ All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development literacy innovations competition, funds our proposed winning project to provide Indian students who are blind with mother tongue instruction and reading materials through Bookshare, our digital library of accessible books.
Thank you to our thriving Bookshare community for everything you have done to to enable us to accomplish together tremendous achievements over the past year. As we look forward to 2015, we know that much work remains to be done. This giving season, you may be receiving communications from our team with an appeal for financially supporting Bookshare. Please take a look and give whatever you can to allow us to continue these efforts and do even more, for more people. Thank you in advance for your support.
A group of Benetech supporters recently came together to give the gift of reading in honor of our long-time board member Jim Kleckner. Jim recently lost his father, retired ophthalmologist James Franklin Kleckner. We decided to create the James Franklin In Memoriam collection, with a focus on science and technology books written for the lay audience. With a gift of just $50, we can add a new ebook to the Bookshare collection, making that book available to hundreds of thousands of Bookshare members with disabilities. You can now give the gift of reading by joining Benetech’s fundraiser campaign as part of the Skoll Foundation’s second annual Skoll Social Entrepreneurs Challenge.
