Who we are and what we do
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation is a registered not for profit organisation run by volunteers. The foundation was created by Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen's fifth great niece, to harness the global passion for Jane Austen to support literacy through volunteer programs and fund literacy libraries for communities in need across the world.
We believe that everyone, no matter gender or circumstance, has the right to learn basic literacy skills. Many of us are very lucky and have the opportunity to receive an education where we can learn these invaluable skills. However, there are communities around the world where this is not so. Literacy rates in developing, low income and war torn countries are staggering, and the gap between men and women even more so.
We fund e-readers and e-libraries for communities in need and work alongside reputable charitable organisations such as Worldreader and the Indigenous Reading Project.
In 2018 the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation doubled the size of the Indigenous Reading Project’s e-library.
The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation funds literacy libraries for developing communities. Currently raising funds for e-readers and a new e-library for Suhum MA Experimental C School in the Eastern Region of Ghana, delivered on the ground by Worldreader.