Fiji Readers is dedicated
to raising the literacy levels of Fijian children

Before Fiji Readers, you created and grew the child
literacy nonprofit Hands Across the Sea, right?
Yes we did, except that with Hands Across the Sea we served children and schools halfway across the world in the Eastern Caribbean. Here's the short story of a long trip to Fiji.

In the 1980s, we built our own 28-foot sailboat and sailed it from Newport Beach, California, to Baja California, Mexico, and then to the islands of the South Pacific, and onward to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. We later sold the boat and settled in Massachusetts to live “normal” lives. In 2007 we bought a 46-foot catamaran in Brazil and began sailing north up the island chain of the Eastern Caribbean. One day Harriet, a former school teacher, suggested we visit a primary school in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

We received a warm welcome from the principal and teachers, but were dismayed by the lack of reading books for the children—a situation we found during visits to other schools in the region. Further investigation revealed that, due largely to a lack of books, child illiteracy was a widespread problem. When we reached the States we founded Hands Across the Sea to help raise child literacy levels in the Eastern Caribbean, and the nonprofit quickly grew into the largest, most effective child literacy organization in the region, complete with on-island project managers (usually, a retired school principal).

A few groundbreaking decisions made Hands a success for Caribbean children and schools. First, we didn’t impose our preconceptions onto Caribbean school principals and teachers—we listened to what they wanted and needed.

Rather than take the usual literacy organization approach and ship a motley collection of used, worn-out books, we decided to send new, asked-for books, and create vibrant lending libraries in each school. The excitement, and momentum began to build. We created other innovative programs, such as our Hands Literacy Links (hands-on project managers, usually retired school principals, in each island) and the Hands Student Librarian program. We sent over half a million new amazing books, reaching nearly 140,000 schoolchildren, and created or rejuvenated over 870 lending libraries in schools.

After fifteen years, we decided to step away from the demands of Hands and move to New Zealand. We sailed our catamaran from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the Bay of Islands in the north of New Zealand's North Island and built a home. And now, rested and ready, we are turning our child literacy goals to Fiji, situated about 1,200 nautical miles north of New Zealand. It will mean a lot to us if you choose to join the cause of child literacy and support our work with Fiji Readers—we will be listening closely to what Fijian educators want and need for their schools and schoolchildren, and we will be using our proven Hands strategies and our 14 years of lessons learned to help raise the literacy levels of Fijian children.

Tom Linskey, Co-Founder
T: (64) 0210 88 99 883
E: tom@fijireaders.org
Harriet Linskey, Co-Founder
T: (1) 617 320 3601
E: harriet@fijireaders.org