The average Haitian child has never walked into a library, picked out a book, sat in a comfortable chair and read it. Many children don’t even know what a library is. They’ve never seen one. The Haitian school curriculum does not provide children with books. Nor do parents – they can’t afford to buy them. Half of all Haitians are illiterate. Even more shocking, this is common in many developing countries.

The Reading Room is a non-profit dedicated to providing access to books and to building a culture of reading in Haiti and elsewhere in Latin America. We have developed a free app that allows schools to have “digital libraries” where children can choose from thousands of open source books in Haitian Creole, French, English and Spanish. It's free. It's easy to use. It's available to everyone.