Hi! My title is Little Lion. My sentences are short because I like to teach kindergarten children who are just learning to put sounds to words. One of my best features is the colorful pictures on my pages. The children love looking at my pictures! They invite them into the story about life in Ethiopia. …
OHBD RSG Book Distribution and Library Training in Gondar By Caroline Walker, Executive Director of Together We Learn (an OHBD collaborating organization) Access to reading materials is very important to the lives of the young people we work with. Across the country, many children do not have books at home. Those that do have access …
OHBD RSG Book Distribution and Library Training in Gondar Read More »
How do we do it—pull meaning from symbols on paper, or from bits of light and dark in flickering electric impulses? This miracle is called reading. I learned to read in Maji, in deep southern Ethiopia. My mother taught me in my own childhood language of English. As I filled workbooks at our dining room …
Learning to decode words — transforming marks on a page (or screen) into sounds in our brains — is one big reading skill. Learning to read those words fluently in sentences is another. The Creative Team considers those skills as we create Ready Set Go Books. But other skills are needed for understanding the sentences …
Creating OHBD RSG Books to Enhance Reading Comprehension Skills Read More »
My educational journey started in Gambella, Ethiopia where I was born. Growing up, I never had nongovernmental printed Anuak books. The school provided textbooks which we always returned at the end of each year. Since the schools couldn’t afford to print new copies each year, we were always given the same recycled books. It’s only …
Preserving a Rare Ethiopian Language for the Anuak People of Gambella Read More »
Thirty-one mammals are found only in Ethiopia. Amazing creatures are tucked away in the many eco-regions of the country that has such varied terrain: mountains, plateaus, river valleys, deserts, lakes, and rivers that allow for the survival of animals that can’t be spotted anywhere else in the world. As one example, the Ethiopian wolf – …
Only In Ethiopia – So many animals, birds and more to explore in books. Read More »
In 2016, I started the process of taking Open Hearts Big Dreams from the fundraising event we started in 2011 to a full-fledged not-for-profit. I was inspired by our amazing daughter and the opportunities we saw to contribute after funding and expanding a library in her birth-town of Bahir Dar (pictured here). That year was …
Open Hearts Big Dreams – Five Years into the Organizational Journey Read More »
It was a big month for Open Hearts Big Dreams. We had our best GiveBIG effort ever – thank you to all who matched, gave, or shared! None of this work is possible without the funding we receive through these types of efforts! We hosted our first locally-focused workshop event organized and led by our …
OHBD’s Leadership Focus Creates Our Newest Leaders Read More »
We are excited to launch our OHBD Big Dreams Heroes and Leaders in Literacy, Innovation, and Inclusion Awards to recognize their invaluable contributions. These volunteers and supporters are heroes and leaders in the truest sense of the words. They exemplify our mission of empowering youth to transform their futures and follow our tenets to accomplish …
In a study published last year in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers looked at data from nearly 70,000 subjects and concluded that volunteers were happier. People who start out at a lower level of well-being seem to get even more benefit from volunteering. But I don’t need a study to tell me that volunteer …
Why Do I Volunteer for OHBD? From our Creative Lead, Author Jane Kurtz Read More »
