It comes as a surprise to many Romanian-Americans that Romania has one of the very lowest literacy and school attainment rates in the EU – due primarily to the inadequacy of its rural schools – where half of Romania’s children still reside. The knowledge that early education is the single most effective investment a society can make in adult literacy, led OvidiuRo’s leaders, in 2020, to make a 5-year plan to:

1. Train all of Romania’s preschool teachers in early literacy methods,
2. Equip every kindergarten with a collection of picture books, and
3. Give every child at least one book to take home!

In the first year of the “Citește-mi 100 de povești!” (Read Me 100 Stories) initiative, 633 “Kinder-Libraries” were established in 39 Romanian counties, over 2000 teachers in 800 kindergartens participated in online training, and 200,000 books were distributed to children to take home and share with their families.

Alianta’s board of trustees encourages its members to support, through The Alex Fund, OvidiuRo’s efforts to modernize and transform ALL the kindergartens in disadvantaged areas into seedbeds of literacy – so they adequately prepare their children to succeed in primary school and progress on to secondary school and beyond. Members’ contributions to The Alex Fund are tax deductible and will directly support this initiative. Especially helpful (and easy to budget) are automatic monthly donations which can be made through either one’s bank or PayPal account. For more information, contact leslie.hawke@alexfund.org (817) 733-1915.