Our Mission

Larelève makes ebooks easily accessible to children and youth from the world’s most underserved communities in order to foster a love for reading and learning and create a community of lifelong readers.

Our Vision

Larelève will create a world where children and youth from the world’s most underserved communities are lifelong readers.

Our Values

Excellence ⭐

We always go above and beyond. In all the things that we do, we do them well.

Integrity 🕊️

We are honest, we build trust, and we always do the right thing.

Committed ✅

We are all in and dedicated to the communities we serve.

Leadership 💡

We inspire others by our words and deeds.

Transparency 💬

We are transparent in all aspects of our operation and are open in our communication.

Diversity 🗺

We value diversity and inclusion as they make us stronger, smarter, and better.

Founder’s Story

Welcome!

I founded Larelève to bring the gift of books and reading to children and youth around the world. Growing up in Haiti, I was an excellent student, and read every chance I got. I remember visiting one of Haiti’s State Colleges and being shocked that they had fewer than a dozen books. How could a college library have hardly any books? Sadly, this isn’t uncommon.

I moved to the United States when I was 20 years old, fluent only in French and Haitian Creole. I went to the library at Nassau Community College, where I was floored by the amount of books they had. I had never seen so many in one place! I picked one up. I remember reading that first book and not understanding what was going on. But I read. I kept reading.

Here I was: a typical college kid, completely immersed in the culture but too nervous to practice my new language. What if I said the wrong thing? I surrounded myself with books and continued teaching myself English.

Reading became my comfort, and it built my confidence. Within months, with a newfound sense of belief in myself, I became an active participant at my college. I joined clubs and student government. I ended up graduating from Baruch College and became a Certified Public Accountant.

Larelève was inspired by the book “Shoe Dog” by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Larelève is loosely translated as “the future” or “the next generation”, and was founded to share my love for reading with others worldwide. Our primary focus is on places where finding books is challenging, such as Haiti and African countries where books are harder to come by.

Here’s how it will work: Larelève will fund and build its first digital library in 2021. We will work with generous individuals, companies and foundations as we grow. Powering the library is OverDrive, a global distributor of digital content for libraries around the world. Readers will be able to sign up for library cards and immediately check out books in French or English - just like any other library.

Over the coming years, our hope is to explore the possibility of opening physical libraries in the countries we serve to supplement our digital work and to promote books in those communities.

Reading opens up worlds - not just imaginary ones. I want to make sure that kids who grew up in communities like mine have books available to them, and are able to harness their power to learn and dream beyond their communities.

We’re thrilled to have you follow along on our journey. If you agree with our mission and believe in investing in generations to come, please consider donating. With your help, we can get more books to kids that need them.

All the best,

Farah

Our Team

Investing in the world’s future generations through education requires a dedicated and incredible team. We’re grateful and honored to have committed leaders guiding our organization.