Kathmandu.  At this moment, 9 out of 10 children in the world are out of school. The global COVID-19 pandemic has
left millions of children without the essential support of teachers, librarians, and community centers.

As a result, parents are franticly finding new ways to help their children continue to learn and grow from their own homes. As the timeline of the pandemic continues to lengthen, high-quality in-home learning will be a critical determinant in minimizing the long term educational and emotional impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on children.

Ever since the World Health Organization listed Nepal as a “high-risk zone” for Covid-19, the government has decided to lockdown the country from March 23, 2020. Nepal has so far reported 9 Covid-19 infected patients. There are more than 35,000 elementary and secondary schools and 10 universities with more than 1,400 colleges and campuses throughout Nepal. All educational institutions that schools and colleges are temporarily closed due to lockdown.

This is affecting the learning process of children and
upcoming academic calendar of new school session that begins on the second day of the Nepali New Year in mid of April. The children are staying at their homes without access to extra educational resources other than their regular academic materials. And it is not known when the normal life will begin.

In response, on April 3, 2020 The Asia Foundation announced Let’s Read at Home, an initiative that
empowers families to support their children’s learning while out of school. Let’s Read at Home includes a multi-language website full of book collections and reading activities that cultivate skills schools would be focusing on, such as critical thinking and STEM (Science, Technology, environment and Math), and addresses topics parents are concerned about, such as health and resilience.

Let’s Read at Home uses the resource site and social media to provide parents with ideas and tips on how to create fun and enriching read aloud experiences with their children. Also, The Asia Foundation’s network of volunteer translators will participate in virtual translation events to expand the number of children’s books available on the Let’s Read at Home resource site.

Let’s Read at Home is part of The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read initiative which builds meaningful reading opportunities for children, diversifies the publishing sector, and overcomes book scarcity across Asia. The initiative has built the region’s largest free children’s digital library available in local languages.

In this Lets Read At Home Campaign, different institutions like UNICEF Nepal, UNESCO Nepal, Nepal Lipi Guthi, Nepal Library Association, National Association of School Libraries, Creative Academy, etc. have been supporting in outreach the campaign.

To support the initiative, please visit and share www.letsreadathome.org on social media using
#LetsReadAtHome and consider reading one of the thousands of beautiful books with the children in your
lives. A great place to start is COVIBOOK, which helps guide conversations with your children about the
COVID 19 virus and healthy habits.

Let’s Read draws on The Asia Foundation’s in-country capabilities, local partnerships, and technological expertise to empower communities to create, translate, and share high-quality, richly illustrated children’s books.

Learn more about Let’s Read at  www.letsreadasia.org  and follow Let’s Read Nepal on Facebook.

www.letsreadathome.org