ISLAND Routes Caribbean Adventure Tours has teamed up with Sandals Foundation to take Caribbean visitors on an exciting journey to boost literacy in primary and early childhood schools for the 2011/2012 academic year.

The groundbreaking ‘voluntourism’ initiative, dubbed ‘Reading Road Trip’, was originally launched by the Sandals Foundation in May to engage students between the ages five and seven in activities geared at improving their literacy, vocabulary and comprehension.

Reading Road Trip will run from 9:00 am to 11:00 am every Thursday during September to June in Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, St Lucia, Antigua, and Great Exuma, in the Bahamas at a cost of US$20 per person, for ages 13 years and older. Children between the ages of eight and 12 are complimentary and all minors must be accompanied by an adult.

“We are very excited about this new education initiative and our partnership with the Sandals Foundation”, says David L Shields, general manager of Island Routes. “Our mandate for our Community Routes programme is to develop tours that get guests involved and contributing – educationally and environmentally – with the contributions benefitting the local community.”

Starting September 15, Island Routes will take visitors wishing to volunteer from their respective resorts to one of the foundation’s adopted early childhood or primary schools. The volunteer will have the opportunity to interact with small groups of children in active reading exercises and assist with their reading skills sheets, provided by the Foundation. Staff will be on hand to guide participants on how to engage and encourage students. In addition, volunteers are encouraged to bring their own books, whether new or gently used, to share with the children and donate to the school’s library.

“We [the Sandals Foundation] believe this is an important exercise, not only because it provides guests a chance to give back to our communities but because children really benefit from having one-on-one assistance in the learning-to-read phase,” said Heidi Clarke, director of programmes at the foundation. “Encouraging active listening and comprehension will also ultimately lead to the children being confident readers themselves. We are hoping that this program will play its part to provide those benefits and to facilitate that outcome,” she added.

Sandals Whitehouse guest, Heather Olson– a past pre-school teacher from Minnesota, who participated in one such reading session last school year — said it was the highlight of her trip. “I would go back every day,” she said. “I was amazed at how well behaved they [the children] were and eager to learn.” She added that the experience made her aware of the vast potential existing in the Jamaican classroom.

Principal of the West End Early Childhood Institution in Negril, Sophia Shacklewood was quite moved by the foundation’s initiative. “A lot of the conditions in our Jamaican classrooms are not ideal; however children still have to learn. It is great to know that organizations and individuals who recognise our children’s potential are out there-it gives us teachers a great feeling to know that we are also able to partner with these volunteers to do something to enhance our children’s learning experience.”

Through Island Routes, visitors travelling to the Caribbean now have the option of booking their Reading Road Trip via the Island Routes website, the Island Routes Call Centre; through their travel agent or tour operator or whilst on-resort. As the initiative grows, the Reading Road Trip is expected to expand to other schools outside of the 26 adopted Sandals Foundation schools across the region.

Since its launch two years ago, the Sandals Foundation has implemented several educational programmes, such as academic scholarships and book drives along with various school maintenance, upgrades and building efforts.