Today we celebrate the United Nations Universal Children’s Day across the globe. This day highlights the importance of children’s rights—including the right of every child to a quality education. It is estimated that 200 million primary school children in developing countries are struggling to read even basic words. At the Global Partnership for Education, it is our goal to cut in half the number of children who cannot read in at least 20 of our developing country partners. When we thought about how best to draw more attention to the importance of literacy and education, we and our GPE partner USAID, came up with the idea for a contest about reading In September, along with over 100 co-sponsors, we launched the Reading Changed My Life Photo and Video Contest. When the contest closed on November 7, 2012, we had received nearly 1000 photos and videos from 93 countries. These photos and videos are accompanied by inspiring stories showing the positive impact that reading had in the lives of so many people. On Universal Children’s Day, I invite you to visit the Reading Changed My Life Photo and Video Contest website, look at the creative photos and videos and read success stories about the impact that learning to read has had on so many people from across the world – often despite enormous challenges. Some of these stories are about: Children that had to help their parents on their farm but now are attending the community school; Children who learned how to read even though no one believe they could; Community schools that can’t afford school supplies so children have to practice their reading and writing skills in the sand; People whose life changed at a very old age – just because they learned to read. These are stories of inspiration and hope, but most importantly, they are about the power of education and how it can transform lives and give children the chance for a brighter future. Help us to celebrate Universal Children’s Day by visiting the Reading Changed My Life Photo and Video Contest gallery and help us select the winning photos and videos by voting for the story that you find most inspiring.