Building Tomorrow

We’re continuing our celebration with an exciting new component of Roots to Rise: phonics!

Phonics is a powerful tool for helping learners unlock fluent reading and an efficient approach to literacy instruction that can help children build foundational skills faster.

So, what exactly is phonics? Why does it matter? And how did we introduce it into Roots to Rise?

Swipe through to learn more about the tool and how we piloted its integration into our programming last year. ➡️

How are you celebrating ? Let us know in the comments!

Happy ! 📚

As an organization focused on literacy and numeracy for all children, this is one of our favorite days of the year, and we’re celebrating with a very special story about Alice. 🧡

Alice is 11 years old and lives in Mityana District, in Central Uganda. She was falling behind in school, always quiet and never speaking up in class, before Building Tomorrow Fellows and Community Education Volunteers enrolled her in a Roots to Rise camp at the beginning of 2026. Alice reached minimum proficiency for her grade level in both literacy and numeracy. But she wasn’t finished.

In August, Alice went on to compete in, and WIN, her district’s spelling bee and reading comprehension competition! A girl who previously never raised her hand in class beat out 79 other students to become the Mityana District spelling bee champion, and the first girl ever to win the title. 🏆

This International Literacy Day, will you join us in giving Alice a big round of applause? 👏🏿

Alice is just one of more than 340,000 children benefiting from Roots to Rise in 2026 alone. And later today, we’ll share more about one key component of Roots to Rise: phonics!

🔗 Read the full blog here: https://buildingtomorrow.org/alice-wins-the-spelling-bee/

🌍 Today, Building Tomorrow is celebrating , a global celebration recognizing the potential of young people as key actors across the globe, as well as the unique challenges these young people face.

This , we celebrate the Building Tomorrow Fellows who represent Building Tomorrow’s core field team, a group 275-strong who work tirelessly to mobilize communities in rural Rwanda and Uganda around foundational education for children.

We asked some of our Fellows about what it means to be a young leader, how they’re making an impact, and their advice for other young people! Check out what they had to say ➡️

Thank you, past and present, for your energy, enthusiasm, and creative ingenuity in solving the problems faced by last-mile communities! ✨

Halfway through 2026, we're celebrating some incredible milestones, including reaching our one millionth learner through Roots to Rise! 🎉

Every number tells the story of children, families, Community Education Teams (CETs), and partners working together to make literacy and numeracy possible for children across East Africa.
Swipe through to see what Building Tomorrow's CETs have achieved so far this year. ➡️

Here's to building on this momentum as we continue working toward literacy and numeracy for all children in East Africa. 💛

💭We're continuing to celebrate our milestone this week! ➡️ Swipe to learn more about how we got there! 🚀

🚀 We’re delighted to introduce Laura, BT’s one millionth learner enrolled in our foundational literacy and numeracy program, Roots to Rise. 🌱

After Laura’s teacher and BT Fellow Grace Laker identified additional support for Laura, she joined a Roots to Rise camp designed to improve her foundational skills. 📚 Over 40 hours in March and April 2026, Laura built her reading, writing, and math abilities and ultimately reached the minimum proficiency level for her grade.

Laura shared with us that her favorite Roots to Rise activity is Mind Map because it helped her to learn how ""to form words, read sentences, tell stories, and form syllables!"" Laura also shared that she loved making new friends through Roots to Rise. (What's better than learning and making new friends at the same time?)

We are thrilled for Laura and her newfound skills, and for the 999,999 other children just like Laura who have leveled up their learning with Roots to Rise.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we share more about how we reached this monumental milestone! 📣

🎉 It is with enormous pride that we share that Building Tomorrow has reached our millionth learner with Roots to Rise! That’s right - a MILLION learners! 🎉

This milestone is a moment to celebrate, reflect, and look ahead. It represents the power of communities, implementers, government partners, supporters, and staff coming together to ensure children build literacy and numeracy skills. 🤝🏿

To everyone who has helped make this possible: thank you. 🧡 We are incredibly grateful, and even more excited for what comes next!

Wow. We’re still taking this in. 🎉

Thanks to the 300 attendees and supporters from afar, on April 24, Build-a-School Night 2026: 20 Years, A Million Learners raised more than $255,000, to support Building Tomorrow’s work, opening the door for 18,000+ new learners to gain foundational skills in reading, writing, and math.

🙏 We’re incredibly grateful for this community and the generosity behind it. Thank you for showing up in such a big way.

📸 We’ve shared a few early photos at the link below, with more on the way.

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCShfc