Some of the findings from the baseline study highlighted the following important issues:

• There is a great need for children's books in the areas where the project is being implemented
• It is vitally important to include support and orientation of caregivers, vis-à-vis sharing books with their children, in order to ensure the success of the project. (This suggests very strongly that FWIP needs to work in partnership and collaboratively with organisations that can offer this support and/or develop a fully-fledged training component in its work.)
• Each household had an average of 2 children under the age of seven. (100 households were surveyed in each area.)
• Each household had at l east one person that is literate
• Most households had some form of printed matter - most commonly the bible and religious material
• While it was useful having some area team members as part of the research team, their inexperience in research may have affected the quality of data collected. (Empowering and developing local communities needs to be carefully balanced with the utilisation of expert skills and knowledge.)
• FWIP should make wider use of local community organisations and groups for the distribution of books and implementation of the project.
  Ways and means of developing local library capacity so that libraries can promote books and reading amongst children and caregivers effectively, needs to be considered
• The project needs to refine its benchmarks and indicators

The five research reports - 4 area reports and a summary report - are available upon request.

Download our FIRST WORDS IN PRINT Baseline Study
Summary Report
Report prepared for FWIP by Angela Schaffer and Kathy Watters