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Our Year in Photos: 2023

With the support of CODE’s many donors, our literacy programs – delivered in collaboration with six local partner organizations – reached over 500,000 girls and boys, helping them become more capable and confident readers!

Our hearts are full of gratitude as we reflect on the past year at CODE. The work we do to champion every child’s right to read would simply not be possible without supporters and partners like you! Your steadfast support, your trust in us, and your staunch belief in the transformational power of literacy is greatly appreciated!

In celebration of all we’ve achieved together over the past year, we’ve curated our “top 23 images for 2023”. Thank you for contributing to building a world where every child can realize their full potential.

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With the support of CODE’s many donors, our literacy programs – delivered in collaboration with six local partner organizations – reached over 500,000 girls and boys, helping them become more capable and confident readers!
Grade 2 girls at Vonzon Primary in Liberia gather for their after-school lessons as part of the Girls’ Accelerated Learning Initiative (GALI), which was recently expanded from 20 to 40 schools. This high-impact program provides an academic lifeline to overage girls at risk of dropping out.
Denise, the Mobile Learning Lab Coordinator for the Girls’ Accelerated Learning Initiative in Liberia, is greeted like a rock star by the program’s participants during her school visits. The program harnesses digital learning opportunities to facilitate both academic and life skills development.
A total of 550,960 colourful, engaging, and locally authored/illustrated children’s books made it into the hands of children determined to learn! In many schools, these are the first books (besides textbooks) that students have ever had access to.
This year’s Giving Tuesday campaign was our most successful yet, raising funds to create 26 school libraries in Sierra Leone full of books authored and illustrated by local artists like Lycius During.
This past year, we were privileged to engage over 10,000 teachers in professional development opportunities, including gaining formal teaching qualifications; participating in intensive training workshops and mentorship; and participating in communities of practice.
As part of the life skills curriculum of the Girls’ Accelerated Learning Initiative, participants learned to make their own reusable sanitary pads in a workshop facilitated by ActionAid. Menstruation can be a significant barrier to regular school attendance for many girls.
In Malawi, CODE continues to lead Innovations in Health, Rights and Development – a collaborative project including partners across education, health, and communications sectors. The program, funded by Global Affairs Canada, is working to advance the rights of girls and young women.
Zione (pictured here with her baby Francis, aged 2), is getting a second chance at an education with the support of Mother’s Groups and school learning clubs supported by the Innovations in Health, Rights and Development project in Malawi.
A total of 147,490 children’s books were distributed to 260 schools this past year as part of the Transforming Girls’ Education Program in Sierra Leone. Many of the books, all locally authored and illustrated, contained stories focused on the theme of girls’ empowerment.
In Sierra Leone, as a result of the Training and Supporting Teachers program, 44% of Grade 3 students answered at least 4 out of 5 reading comprehension questions correctly, up from a 0% baseline.
The Global Affairs Canada-funded Innovations in Health, Rights and Development project benefits from the inspiring and insightful perspectives of school-aged youth who comprise the project’s Youth Advisory Committee.
In October, Momoh Stephan Kallon, a past literacy program participant, won a “Sierra Leone National Presidential Best Teachers’ Award.”
CODE partnered with UNICEF, the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, and the Global Partnership for Education (among many others) to deliver teacher development workshops focused on foundational literacy in Sierra Leone. Over 6,401 teachers participated in the past year alone.
Bernadette Kemokai is one of the many talented authors that we work with. Last year, we launched the book development process for eight new grade-level reading anthologies as part of the Teaching and Learning in Fragile Contexts program.
This past year, CODE experimented with new ways of communicating need and impact, including video messages sent via SMS to supporters. 89% of viewers engaged with the videos by watching, commenting and clicking to find out more information. We’re excited to do more of this in the year to come.
Over the past three years, CODE supporters have helped 100 young women in Sierra Leone attend teachers’ college to gain their formal teaching certification. What a proud moment it was to attend their graduation ceremonies earlier this year!
Considering the disruption caused by COVID-19, it is extraordinary that 85% of women selected in 2020 to participate in the inaugural “Class of 2023” scholarships initiative completed their third and final year of teachers’ college and wrote their final exams. We’re so proud of what they’ve achieved!
Six CODE-sponsored researchers discuss their Context Matters research findings during the CODE-convened panel titled 'Context Matters: Towards Sustainable Literacy Development by Africans for Africans' at the 13th biennial Pan African Literacy for All (PALFA) Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
The BETTER project in Mozambique, co-funded by CODE supporters and Global Affairs Canada, continued to deliver nationwide impact as 40,000 copies of the program’s teacher training textbooks were rolled out to 19 of the country’s 38 teachers’ colleges.
In January, we launched the Reading Ghana-Western Region program in 37 primary schools. Over the next three years, CODE will work in close collaboration with local partners to deliver sustained improvements to student literacy and learning and to nurture a culture of reading.
Thank you all for helping CODE and our partners advance our shared vision of a world where every young person can pursue their education and realize their potential as literate, empowered and self-reliant citizens. We see their great potential and are grateful that you do, too!
We dedicate this year-end slideshow to Stephen Douglas, who sadly left us on November 26th in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he lived and worked. Stephen – always an intrepid journalist and passionate pursuer of truth – was a good friend of CODE, and we will miss him.
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