You can teach a child to read. It costs about ten dollars.
Photo — child reading
Photo — a "Mum" teacher
Photo — family learningYou can end childhood illiteracy where it hits hardest.
It started with a work trip to West Africa in 2018. Our founder came home changed — and spent the next four years unable to let it go. Doctrina was formed in 2022, with a handful of reading programs and a few generous friends. Today 6,720 children are learning to read across Papua New Guinea and Ghana, with a bold goal on the horizon in Sierra Leone. The crisis is enormous. We also know exactly how to solve it — one child and one local teacher at a time.
Photo — child at a tap of knowledge / bookYou have our word — and more.
When we started Doctrina, we made a simple promise: keep the work local, keep the costs low, and keep proving it works. Local teachers run the programs, and no one in the States draws a salary from Doctrina.
How we work.
You should know exactly how and where your donation is used. So from the start, we've kept a few promises.
Your gift goes to people who live there.
Community parents and teachers run the programs — not outsiders who leave. That's what makes them last.
Your gift buys a proven method.
A reading program that takes children from non-reader to full books in months, not years — and we measure every result.
Your money doesn't fund an office.
Doctrina has no salaried U.S. employees, and the people teaching are already part of the community.
Photo — child reading, smilingThe people behind the mission.
Doctrina is powered by a founder who wouldn't let go of one idea — and by the local leaders who make it real every day.
Photo — Mike MadsenMike Madsen
Founder
Photo — Ernest & SarahErnest & Sarah Gyampoh
Ghana program leaders
Photo — Jemima AdeolaJemima Adeola
Community school founder, Ghana
Change a generation with us.
Give, fundraise, or bring your community along — there's a place for you in this work.