Who We Are
REAL is made up of youth in Portland, Oregon that
support rural youth literacy in India. We are a non-profit
youth organization that is working hard to help
underprivileged children access basic education in the
rural schools and village communities of India.
We started the group in August 2001 and are a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
What We Do
- REAL helps promote reading and writing and enhanced
basic education by:
- Providing educational materials for schools (maps,
teaching aids, and educational manipulatives for
primary grade children).
- Providing books, newspaper and magazine
subscriptions to rural village school libraries.
- Providing science kits and equipment for hands-on
learning.
- Providing scholarships to children who wish to
study beyond the 7th grade (children often need to go
to a larger village school, often far from home).
- Providing notebooks, textbooks, and pencils to poor
children.
- Supporting pre-school programs that focus on
children at risk of never beginning school.
- Creating community awareness about the need for
world literacy.
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Why India?
- More than 40 percent of India's population is illiterate and cannot read or write.
- Rural public schools are inadequate and often
non-existent.
- Many indirect benefits of a basic education include
poverty reduction, disease control, enhanced employment
opportunities, etc.