WRITING THE BOOK ON A LOVE FOR LITERACY

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Aliyah Majeed-Hall. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Aliyah Majeed-Hall has always loved to read. Growing up, she maintained a home library and stayed up past her bedtime reading into the wee hours of the morning. Now 16 years old, Aliyah is working to bring that love of reading to children across her community. As a volunteer with Affordable Homes & Communities, an organization that creates affordable housing opportunities and provides residents with life-changing programs, Aliyah works in their after-school program.

After learning that many children in the program don’t have books at home, Aliyah created a service project called the One Word Reading Initiative to provide children in vulnerable communities with high-quality, culturally relevant books. What started as a process of gathering books from friends, family and other AHC volunteers has sprouted into a significant endeavor that has provided 330 families with over 800 books since December 2023.

Since starting the initiative, Aliyah has worked hard to expand the program’s reach. She has raised funds to purchase books through local library book sales and even negotiated a 30% discount from Barnes & Noble to buy new Spanish-language kids’ books. With over 13 book giveaways under her belt, Aliyah shares her love of reading while making literacy education more accessible.

Never one to toot her own horn, Aliyah says her favorite part of the One Word Reading Initiative is the interactions with the children. In fact, she credits the children’s curiosity as a vital component of the program’s success. Wise beyond her years and always eager to send children home with smiles on their faces, Aliyah’s dedication is a testament to the impact that volunteering has on one’s community.

What inspires you to volunteer?

What inspires me is knowing that even though I may only be a high school student, I can make a difference. Even if I can touch one child’s life, bring one book into their home and make reading seem less challenging or daunting, or inspire them to pick up a book, then I will have made a difference. That is really important to me. Trying to help children develop a love of reading is important to me.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I started volunteering with the organization because it was something that my mom and I could do together every week. It was often the highlight of our weeks to go and work with the children. I started the One Word Reading Initiative because I noticed that many of the children I worked with didn’t have that many books at home.

There’s so much research that shows that having books in the home makes learning to read easier because you can turn to your books again and again. It helps promote long-term literacy and makes success easier in school. We wanted to bring books to the homes of children who may not have many in their houses.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

Our long-term goals are to keep building our initiatives and have many more children with quality books in their homes or wherever they are living. We’re currently planning some more book events in the spring, and we’re also planning to reach out to some middle and high school student-learning groups in the region to encourage them to follow the same approach I did, which is just to find an organization or two in your area that serves children and gather high-quality books. Go to where the children are, host a pop-up book fair and let the children choose. Just talk to the children about the books, and you can get friends, neighbors and local businesses to support you. It’s easy and it makes a big difference.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

The day-to-day interactions that I have with all of the students. I have a fourth-grade student I work with who loves rocks and minerals. He collects them, categorizes them and talks about them endlessly. One week, I brought a few science books for him and I thought it would take a while for him to get involved. But the next week, I came back to AHC and he told me that he had read all of the books and brought up all his new facts and knowledge. I was so impressed. I just know that he has the potential to help save the world or make a tremendous scientific discovery and I’m so glad that I could just be a small part of his journey.

Do you think organizations are hesitant to team up with teenagers like yourself?

I have received nothing but support on this. We email them and tell them what we do, and that we want to send books or host a public book fair. A lot of organizations see that there is a need to read and that there is a lack of high-quality books for children. That’s incredibly important and has allowed us to reach a lot of communities and areas.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

When you care about a cause, you’re more motivated to do something about it. Sometimes people get daunted and don’t realize that they can make even a small impact. For me, I was just volunteering with children on their reading, which was an area that I was interested in. I noticed that some of the kids didn’t have books in their home, and that’s how it all got started. I encourage both high school students and adults to go out, find something they’re passionate about and come up with one little way they can make a difference.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

I think the first step is to pick an issue that speaks to you and that you care about. Maybe your passion is science and you want to bring science to the elderly people in your community. Well, then you could find a center that has seniors, go in, speak to the people who run the center and see how you can bring science and fun activities to them. You have to go into it with a passion. Once you have a passion, that’s what kicks it all off.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I may just be a high school student, but I identified an issue that I cared about that I could do something about on a small scale. I just thought, how can I impact one person today? How can I change one day of their life? I think that’s important. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the tremendous work that many organizations are doing, and you’re only one person. Just realize how a small impact can make all the difference for someone.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Aliyah? Find local volunteer opportunities.