Vol. 30, No. 2 Winter 2008

Winter Ngoma 2008 - view pdf

Looking back at looking ahead   

CODE’s executive director Scott Walter reflects on five decades of strategic programming.

History is but the human record of the past, our attempt to make sense of experience. As CODE steps forward into its 50th  year of operation one way of making sense of our accumulated experience is to reflect upon an earlier milestone, that of our 25th Anniversary. So with that end in mind, I turn to a prior edition of Ngoma, specifically the Summer of 1984 and an article entitled, Mapping out future strategies for CODE. 

Reviewing this article affords us the opportunity to reflect on strategic planning at CODE and the progression of the organization into what we are today. Comparing these past strategies with CODE’s current five year plan illustrates not only the overall coherence of our evolution, but indicates as well the understanding of pursuing quality programming that I believe has always been a hallmark of CODE. Interestingly some of the language used such as the term “Third World” now seems archaic, while other terms such as “effective aid” continue to be applied today.

“The evolution of CODE’s services was in direct response to the changing needs and priorities of our recipients overseas; increasingly we are seeing an even greater emphasis on the role of literacy and education in the overall development strategies of many Third World countries.

"In light of new priorities overseas and increased funding potential for literacy initiatives, CODE is embarking on the policy recommendations contained in a new strategy document… We will be examining our present programs and activities with a critical eye, focusing on the fundamental issues of effective aid, the promotion of universal literacy and the future role of CODE overseas and in Canada."

Having originated as a ‘donated-book’ sending agency, one of the most significant changes foreshadowed in this article is the shift towards supporting the development of national publishing industries, so they can address their countries’ book needs directly:

“One of the major issues to be tackled is the role of Canadian-produced reading material in a Third World educational context.  Numerous studies have proved the value and need for reading materials  to ensure the maintenance of the reading skill; however, the significant of Canadian books in the third World educations systems, the enormous demand for reading materials and the uses to which they are put are all issues which must be addressed. Several developing countries are now following import policies which restrict the flow of foreign books, specifically textbooks, for a number of reasons; massive importation of books can thwart the development of a local publishing industry; continuous exposure to foreign books may distort the development of national identity and foreign books are often irrelevant to a given curriculum”.

Further, the article identifies another major shift towards the recognition that in order to do more and do it more effectively, CODE needed to have greater geographical focus:

"The other major area of concern to be studied is the geographical scope of CODE activities. CODE is presently operating in 90 countries, serving over 2,000 institutions. In light of enormous needs in education and literacy in all our recipient countries, can we continue to assist education effectively among so many?"

CODE’s careful consideration of this question led the organization to reduce its program scope and focus on a few key regions. Today, we work with 12 overseas partners in 10 countries, having developed strong long-lasting partnerships in the process. The success of this decision has been demonstrated in numerous ways; from higher pass-rates in program areas to various international awards of recognition, including three from UNESCO.

And finally, a conclusion that could be taken straight from our current strategy:

"The ideas and actions to be pursued over the next few months share two goals: to improve CODE’s effectiveness and to prepare the organization for taking on new and exciting initiatives in the future in support of development through education."

Reading Democracy

By Jana McDade, Communications Manager, CODE

The hot Ethiopian sun beat down on Ayana Endayene as she walked to the polling station. Her arms were tired - weighed down by a stack of books.  Ayana knew a lot about the world because of books. What Ayana didn’t know was that her books, borrowed through a local community library, were from the same entity that provided the ballot she was about to cast.

The connections between a country’s literacy rates and its ability to advance the democratic process are palpable. Accessing and making sense of a world of information requires a foundation of reading and writing skills just as public dialogue and reasoned debate require the related skills of comprehension, critical thinking and independent thought.  As with shared prosperity, no country has ever achieved broad democracy on the backs of an illiterate population.

The direct connection between Ayana Endayene’s books and ballot is the result of a bold, unprecedented move by CODE some 20 years ago, when it decided to start a for-profit enterprise that would ensure a sustainable and predictable form of revenue, alleviating its dependence on government funding at a time when aid budgets were shrinking.

Today that enterprise, called CODE Incorporated, is a leading integrator of voter registration and election materials – having completed more than 220 projects in about 70 countries across the globe. The corporation continues to make annual donations to CODE, and ardently pursues its mandate to “contribute to the support and growth of democracy and promotion of international development worldwide.”

Equally impressive is the manner in which this relationship developed.

From its inception in 1959, CODE’s operations required great entrepreneurial spirit. The organization evolved from a small group of individuals sending tea chests of books to Africa, into a national force of volunteers, who, by the early 1980s, were donating and collecting more than 20 tons of books annually. CODE shipped these books to some 90 developing countries, and in doing so acquired expertise in mitigating international freight and distribution systems effectively and at minimal cost. 

With success came the desire to do more for education abroad. CODE wanted to pursue a targeted and sustainable approach, one that would provide highly relevant and motivating reading materials in languages children were speaking in the home, and one that would help lead to the establishment of national book industries within the countries it worked. Such program expansion required a dependable flow of financial support.

CODE’s expertise in shipping was an obvious opportunity for for-profit expansion, and CODE Incorporated was born. From 1987 to 1992, CODE Inc explored a number of business ventures, from shipping computers to used clothing – all with the mission to “establish itself as the agency of choice to the development community through its quality of service, its sensitivity to the needs of the development community and through its financial contribution to the development effort via CODE”.

In the early 1990s CODE Inc found its niche in the election field – where its ability to procure and ship supplies, such as ballots, boxes and voting booths, quickly and at a low cost gave it an advantage over the competition. CODE Incorporated bid on major international elections within the United Nations system. It won first in Nicaragua, then Haiti, and moved on to some of the world’s most eminent elections in recent history including Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

With regional offices in North America and Europe, and strategic partners in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, CODE Incorporated continues to provide a wide range of specialized products and professional services to election commissions, donor agencies and non-government institutions to support secure voting and successful registration events world-wide.

In recent years, CODE Incorporated has been a pioneer in the development of appropriate and cost effective methods of digital voter recognition systems. It is currently working on major upcoming electoral projects in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Ivory Coast.

CODE Incorporated continues to be a strong and dependable source of financial support that enables CODE to sustain and expand its literacy programs in the developing world.

Ayana Endayene may never know that the enthusiastic teacher who first taught her to read was trained by CODE, or that the books she enjoyed each night before bed were published with CODE’s support, or that the polling station where she cast her vote was supplied by CODE’s for-profit wing -- but she does know that her literacy skills are the reason she has a good job, and that voting is her democratic right, and that she will do everything possible to keep her two girls in school so they too can be educated and lead healthy, productive lives

Books change lives

By Jana McDade, Communications Manager, CODE

William Kamkambwa left secondary school part-way through his first year because his parents could no longer afford the fees. When he wasn’t helping them on the family farm, he was reading books from the small, community library located in his village. William was just 14-years-old when he borrowed a book that would change his life.

The book was called “Energy Sources” and inside its colourful pages William found images and information about energy generating windmills. William’s house, in a small village called Masitala, in Malawi, had never had electricity.

“I was motivated to develop a windmill after reading the book,” says William. “I wanted to improve the living standards in my household, and to reduce poverty at home by providing electrical power at a low cost.”

With the book in hand, William began constructing a windmill from whatever materials he could find. Two months later he had erected a tower out of blue-gum tree trunks, fashioned blades out of flattened plastic pipe, built a turbine with spare bicycle parts, and run a copper wire from the tower’s base to a car battery and an electrical switch made from flip-flop parts inside his home. The entire structure cost 2200 Malawian Kwacha, about $20 Canadian.

When the wind picked up the tower shook and clanked as the blades began to turn. Two light bulbs in Williams’s house shone bright and the radio boomed. Nobody could believe that William had made electricity by reading a book.

William’s story quickly spread across Malawi. Skeptics and well-wishers from near and far came to see his invention. The library was busy with inspired readers of all ages.

William went on to build two more windmills in his family compound, another for the local school, and began designs for a windmill powerful enough to irrigate the crops of more than 60 families in his village.

William’s ambition caught the eye of entrepreneurs, educators and researchers across the world, some of who pledged to finance his education. William was accepted into one of the best secondary schools in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, where he received his secondary school certificate.

Today, seven years after he borrowed “Energy Sources”, 21-years-old William has joined the inaugural class of a new Pan-African prep school called the African Leadership Academy, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on a scholarship.

William says he wants to build a windmill company that will provide energy to people across Africa after graduating.

The book William borrowed seven years ago reached his local library through CODE’s affiliate the International Book Bank (IBB). Last year with IBB’s support, CODE distributed about 242,000 donated brand-new reference and story books to small community libraries just like William’s, in nine developing countries.

The CODE Collection

By Jana McDade, Communications Manager, CODE

On a wide shelf at Library and Archives Canada sits a unique collection of more than 1000 diverse stories, spanning five decades, written and illustrated in 45 developing countries, and published in some 60 languages.

It is a special compilation of books, primarily for children but some for adults, housed at the national library because it demonstrates, in Library and Archive’s words, “Canada’s enduring values of respect for diverse cultures and languages, the importance of education and literacy, and Canada’s role in nurturing developing nations through literacy and access to education.”

And it derives from CODE.

The CODE collection was donated to the national library in the summer of 2006. The collection reflects CODE’s five-decade long contribution towards creating literate environments around the globe. Other, smaller, CODE collections are housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and at the Oxford Brookes University Library in Oxford, U.K., however Library and Archives Canada is the only place in the world where the entire collection is systematically preserved for the future.

The books in the collection were all supported by CODE in Canada, and originate from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. Languages and dialects represented range from those spoken worldwide such as Portuguese, French and English to regional languages with many speakers such as Kiswahili (East Africa), Wolof (Senegal), Oromiffa (Ethiopia) and Makua (Mozambique) as well as languages with fewer than 10,000 speakers, such as Bilua, spoken in the Solomon Islands.  Several scripts appear and two titles are coded in Braille. Together, their inclusion in the national collection recognizes a unique Canadian perspective.

Further, having the collection housed at Library and Archives Canada promises its long-term preservation and accessibility.

 “Because the books are catalogued and preserved, we can look at ways of digitizing, reprinting or repurposing the entire collection,” says Camrose Burdon, a retired librarian and CODE volunteer who has spearheaded the transfer of books from CODE to the national library. “The collection is rich material for research in literacy and publishing strategies in developing countries and the opportunities to extend its reach are endless.”

Library and Archives Canada is in the process of moving their archival collection online to make the publications more accessible. Canadians can see the CODE collection on-site in Ottawa, and can access the names of titles electronically through Library and Archive Canada’s catalogue or on CODE’s website.

Visit www.codecan.org/code/our-books to learn more. 
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Sharing Knowledge

CODE’s newest program, Reading Liberia, is a comprehensive readership initiative that aims to improve the quality of education in Liberia.

This will be achieved, in part, by supporting writers to create reading materials that engage Liberian students and contribute to Liberia’s broader publishing industry, and by enabling teachers to effectively use those materials to teach reading, writing and problem solving skills.

It is also about sharing knowledge and building capacity. The program draws on the shared expertise of passionate Liberian professionals who demand a better and brighter future for Liberia’s children, along with North American specialists who are volunteering their time to provide the kind of peer-to-peer mentoring from which they themselves have benefitted.

CODE posed a few questions to our volunteer trainers, who are based at various North American Universities.

Q: Are you optimistic that Reading Liberia can meet its goals?
Yes. I’ll never forget one man who came to our first session. He told us he had written his entire life, but never planned to be a writer. He wrote for fun, because he loved to. He said he’d written more than 2,000 pages. Then one day the rebels came and burned his home to the ground. He lost everything. He said he swore he would never write again, that all hope was lost. Then he was invited to our writer’s workshop, and he stood in front of the group telling us this story, and finished off by saying that he thinks with our support he might write again. This man is one of scores of Liberians with the talent and the drive and the ambition to rebuild their country, but there needs to be some infrastructure for them to work within. We can play a role there. 
– Brian O’Donnell, Ryerson University. Toronto, ON.

From the beginning this has been a project of Liberia, not just for Liberia. … it will definitely provide books that celebrate local content and books that offer hope and invite pride.  
– Wendy Saul, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO.

Yes, and you would be too, if you knew our partners in Liberia. Michael and Yvonne Weah, the directors of the WE-Care Library Foundation, offer a peaceful haven for hundreds of young people every week to read and study. Late afternoons and weekends they run "The Story Hour" for children in a sprawling squatter settlement down on what used to be the beach. Once a month they host the Liberia Association of Writers, a group that promotes writers and writing about that country. James Roberts, the Deputy Minister of Education, has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston College. He's a playwright, a former television producer, a man jailed repeatedly for testing the limits of free speech before the war, and exiled during much of the war. Now, like many talented Liberians, he has answered his president's call to come home and help rebuild his home country. It’s just the beginning of our team. 
– Charles Temple, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Geneva, NY.

Optimistic? Without question. This project is a genuine partnership that is attempting to respond to a need identified by key educators within Liberia for Liberian books for Liberian children and teachers.  The design of Reading Liberia has an integrity that comes from genuinely meaningful collaboration amongst the entire team at every stage, involving every major decision.  It means it’s ‘real on the ground’ - and that makes an enormous difference in terms of credibility and what it makes possible.  
-Alison Preece, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

Q: Why do Reading Liberia’s goals matter?
To ask why these goals matter is sort of like asking why is it important to communicate with one another… so that we can find information, so that we can figure out, so that we can see how others see the world, so that we can bathe in the beauty of language, pass on our cultures – it all happens through language. Books, especially in a culture short on books, are the vessels that hold the best of our linguistic efforts.   – Wendy Saul
In a post-conflict environment, we simply have to work out ways to promote community-building, to help each person make the most of herself, himself, their collective selves. Good books that help people have dialogue about things that matter, and good teaching that encourages good talk--these, I believe, are our best tools for community building, for peace-building. – Charles Temple

They’re about voice and affirmation of identity and making it possible for readers to recognize themselves - the selves they are and the selves they might become. Yes, these goals matter…. in Canada as well as in Liberia.   - Alison Preece

Q: What do you, personally, hope to achieve through this project?
I want to be able to read about Liberia ten or fifteen years from now, and hear about a couple of local publishers turning out really thoughtful books for young people, written locally. I want to hear about teachers who are enthusiastically helping children read and talk and think and cooperate and engage themselves productively in the places where they live.  – Charles Temple

I hope one day I can share books written by and about Liberia with young people here – to share the authentic voices of contemporary authors from another country and to help make the world a little smaller, a bit less frightening. I want that sense of hope to be the bridge that connects us.  - Wendy Saul

I want the extraordinary Liberian teachers to feel their professionalism has been recognized and supported and that they have been positioned to work with other teachers to make the experiences of children at school better for everyone.  I want to be able to bring what I’ve learned from these teachers  - about persistence in the face of daunting odds, about creativity with limited resources - back to my own teaching and to my students in Canada.  It’s such a privilege to be part of this.   -  Alison Preece

CODE partner wins international award

Célia Maria Diniz, the founding member of CODE’s Mozambican partner, Associação Progresso, has won the Africa-America Institute (AAI)’s Outstanding Service Award. The award recognizes Ms.Diniz’s commitment to supporting training opportunities for Mozambicans as AAI’s Country Representative in Mozambique.  Ms. Diniz was surprised with the award during The Africa-America Institute’s black-tie 55th anniversary gala in New York. The celebration was also attended by Mozambiques President Armando Emílio Guebuza.