Inspiring Stories on the Power of Reading

Jizlynn with her prize © Jizlynn Co

Do you remember how you learned to read? What was challenging about it and what made it worth it? Who helped you? Send us your story, and we will select the most inspiring stories and publish them on our website. Just like the stories from Jizlynn in the Philippines and Odalis in the Dominican Republic.

Jizlynn, 24, from the Philippines reads to fight cancer. Diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma right before graduating, she turned to books to escape her life-threatening disease. She says: “Reading helped me create a world that saved me from drowning in my own sorrow.”

Jizlynn’s wants to help others to learn know about good health and her dream is to open a wellness center. For her, life is like a book: you have to go through all the chapters, however difficult, before you experience success.

Odalis shows off her new Kindle
© Odalis Hernandez

Odalis, 23, from the Dominican Republic, is a young teacher full of energy and hopes for her own children and for the ones she teaches at Mariposa Montessori School. She is convinced that education will give them better opportunities in life, and it starts with learning how to read, letter after letter, word after word.

Learning to read can be challenging. Odalis learned to read with her cousins when she was 8. She lived with her grandparents who did not know how to read. Jizlynn learned reading from her mom. She calls it a process that “took patience and dedication”.

Once letters on a page stop looking like secret code but start to have meaning, a whole new world of opportunities opens up.

Send us your story about how reading changed your life. We will select the most inspiring stories and publish them on the website of the Global Partnership for Education.

We hope you’ll get involved in helping children learn and grow, and join our conversation on Facebook and Twitter.