The Rotary Dictionary Project is a nationwide effort to provide young students with their own personal dictionaries. More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population. Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy. We support education for all children and literacy for children and adults. The dictionary is filled with more than just terms and definitions. It also includes a mini encyclopedia filled with maps, facts about U.S. presidents, and math conversation tables. Many of the children who received dictionaries come from homes where English is a second language and may not have access to a lot of resources.

Locally our club provide dictionary’s to third graders in Dorchester County schools. Rotary members say seeing the joy on the children’s faces when they learn the book is theirs to keep makes the project worthwhile.