Safaricom Foundation has partnered with Storymoja Publishers for a reading challenge to mark the Day of the African Child.
Over 200,000 students from schools across the country took part in the challenge by reading text from Attack of the Shidas, a life skills story that uses science fiction to teach ethnic tolerance to children.
In June 2015, the Storymoja Read Aloud team led 229,043 children in 1,097 schools across 44 counties to set a national record and unofficially overtake the world record of most people reading the same text at the same time in multiple locations.
The current Guinness World Record for Most People Reading Aloud from the Same Text at the Same Time in Different Venues is 223,363 participants in 909 venues across the United States of America.
Safaricom Foundation supported the initiative through its literacy and numeracy programme which has provided a steady improvement in reading skills in the three counties it has been implemented.
Over 4,500 learners in grade 3 to 5 have benefitted from the Accelerated Learning Programme being implemented in partnership with Zizi Afrique Foundation through literacy and numeracy camps.
The programme is implemented in Bungoma, Turkana and Tana River counties aims to support learners lagging to acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills within a short period of time. Each County has 40 schools participating in the programme.
