Together, these efforts help children experience school with more dignity, joy, and possibility.
Many children come to school without the basic materials they need for the day. LikE provides notebooks, pencils, crayons, sharpeners, and other supplies so students can participate more fully in clasS. We also provide teaching materials that help teachers support learning in practical ways.
Because of donor support, in recent project years, LikE has provided more than 5,000 school supplies annually to students and teachers.
A classroom should give children a place to sit, write, listen, and learn with dignity. LikE helps provide desks, chairs, tables, and other classroom furniture so students can learn in spaces that feel more supportive and ready for them.
Because of donor support, LikE has provided classroom furniture across multiple years, including close to 100 desks and chairs within the project’s early years and 54 brand-new classroom furniture items in a recent project cycle.
LikE works with teachers and heads of partner schools to identify priority classroom needs. Recent support has included whiteboards and math teaching aids.
These are not glamorous gifts, but they matter. They make teaching clearer, classrooms more functional, and learning more accessible.
Each Christmas, LikE helps bring joy to children in our partner schools. In one project year alone, more than 1,000 children received gifts and packages before the holiday break. For many of them, it may have been their only Christmas present. The Christmas gifts matter because children remember being remembered. They carry that joy back into their homes, classrooms, and school experience.
No child should have to miss school because her family cannot afford basic hygiene needs. For some girls, sanitary products and underwear make the difference between staying home and walking into class with dignity.
LikE provides feminine hygiene products and underwear to selected students as part of our commitment to helping children remain comfortable, confident, and engaged in school.
Because LikE works closely with partner schools, we are able to hear about needs that may not fit neatly into a program category. Recent special-request projects have included free daily lunch for a special-needs student, new school uniforms for selected children, additional desks for a second school, and classroom materials requested by school leaders. These requests remind us that educational support is not only about books and supplies. Sometimes it is about helping one child get through the school day with dignity, comfort, and care.
Books are at the center of LikE’s work, but the goal is larger than book access alone. Through mobile-library activities and reading clinics, children receive guided reading support, encouragement, and regular opportunities to practice. They read, listen, ask questions, build comprehension, and gain confidence.
The reading clinics create a space where children can discover that reading is not only a school requirement. It can also be joyful.
LikE uses reading assessments to understand how students are progressing and where additional support may be needed. This helps the work stay focused on children’s actual learning, not just the number of books distributed or sessions held. Because of donor support: In the most recent project cycle, LikE included 225 students in the reading-assessment effort, and 76.9% completed both assessments.
Some students need extra support to build reading confidence. LikE provides targeted intervention where teachers and project leaders see a need.
Recent results show that students receiving additional support made strong gains, with targeted students recording especially strong improvement in reading scores.
Children deserve to be celebrated for their effort, growth, and commitment.
LikE’s Student Excellence Award recognizes students who participate in the reading project and show strong engagement. The award encourages children to keep reading, keep trying, and take pride in their progress.
Showing up matters. LikE recognizes students who attend consistently because regular participation helps children build habits, confidence, and reading growth over time. In the most recent project year, 134 students were recognized for perfect attendance, up from 39 students the previous year.
LikE helps children connect across borders through letter exchanges between students in Eugene, Oregon, and students in Winneba, Ghana. Through this exchange, children practice writing, share their lives, and learn that friendship, curiosity, and encouragement can travel across continents.