We-Care/Friends Of Liberia/HIPPY Family Literacy October 2018- January 2019 Reporting

Liberia, with a low literacy rate and a large number of out of school children, is struggling to strengthen its quality of education. Presently, the early childhood education level is the least prioritized, as reflected in the national budgetary allocation and an imposed fee for early childhood education. However, with the evidence that the formative years are the most crucial years of growth and development of a child that is going to assume the leadership of the nation in the future, a concerted effort must be made to educate the Liberian children. FLI intervention is an intergenerational approach to literacy and school readiness. The program provides the necessary instructional materials and most interestingly, the skills and confidence parents need to be their child/children first teacher.

At the end of the pilot years (3 years), the first group of 45 children that participated in the FLI program completed the three- year FLI/HIPPY curriculum. Presently, 39 of these children are in formal schools (community, private and public schools) within their communities and sadly, six of these children are not enrolled in school due to financial constraints of their parents.

FLI, drawing on the experience from the pilot phase, is implementing year Four with interventions in four communities in two counties (Montserrado and Margibi Counties) by providing home instructions to 180 families (Caldwell 47, Duazon 47, WestPoint 46 and Neezoe 40) with out of school children between the ages of 3 – 5.