Two Rabbits believes deeply in the importance of literacy, and in building connections across cultures. That is why, for the first time ever, we have converted one of our cherished children’s books into a version for purchase!

Opposites takes you through daily life in Djebe village, all while exploring things that are opposites, like big and small, and quiet and loud. Each page includes vocabulary in English and French about opposites for bilingual learning!

We made this book together with teachers and learners in Djebe village as a way to share about our communities, and help kids learn new words. The best part? This is the same book that our kids use to learn about opposites too (except with Baka and French words, of course).

It means so much to me and to the entire team at Two Rabbits to share our work with the world. We hope you enjoy the book as much as we do!

You can buy the book on Amazon, or get a free copy with a donation of $100 or more.

How can we become more connected in a world of isolation during the age of COVID-19? As our schools closed and laptops opened, we decided it was more important now than ever before to reach out to others around the world. 

We discovered Two Rabbits this summer, and immediately fell in love with their tireless and creative efforts to combat education inequality. Together with Sarah, we thought of ways that we could use our strengths to contribute to Two Rabbits’ mission, learn about the Baka culture, and broaden our horizons. 

What better way to do this than through a pen pal program? With guidance from Sarah and the Two Rabbits team, we developed Amies Écrits: a pen pal program that blends traditional and virtual letter writing. We brought together a group of four U.S. students and four Baka youth teachers to exchange letters each month. We hand-write our letters, take a picture, and share them through WhatsApp.

Amies Écrits combines our passions for French, community service, and leadership, and shares these joys with our new friends in Cameroon. It has been incredible to cultivate friendships with pen pals who we never would have had the chance to meet otherwise. Despite our different cultures and primary languages, we have formed immensely rewarding friendships through letters in our shared secondary language of French. In every letter, we uncover new commonalities between our vastly different lives.

Not only does Amies Écrits broaden our understanding of the world, but it also enables us to have a mindset that strives to enrich and support one another, rather than to “help” those considered to be “in need”. We are now certain that we want to devote our futures to making an impact in the world we live in, just as Two Rabbits and their team is doing everyday.  We want to truly thank Two Rabbits for giving us the opportunity to develop this program, and we are beyond excited for what the future holds.

Two Rabbits places the health and safety of our learners, teachers, staff, and families above all else. The government of Cameroon formally closed all education establishments until further notice. In compliance with these requirements and in the spirit of putting wellness first, we have closed our centers’ doors. We have issued two-month salary advances to all local teachers and personnel to help them weather this period of uncertainty. We also distributed the tip sheet below on how families can help children learn and play at home.

These are days that bring us to recognize our common humanity. Around the world, no matter who you are or where you live, we are vulnerable, yet we are strong. The one thing we know is that we will overcome this together, by keeping one another in our hearts even when we cannot be close. We look forward to the day when our learners fill our centers again. Until then, we wish for strength, health, and courage to you and your loved ones.

In 2018, Two Rabbits embarked on a full proof of concept with the support of the Saving Brains initiative, a Grand Challenges Canada partnership. Through our partnership with the initiative, over the next two year we will rigorously evaluate our program for impact in 20 Baka villages across East Cameroon.

And that means data! As part of our baseline data collection last Fall, we interviewed children, parents, lesson facilitators, and other key stakeholders on topics ranging from education to cultural pride. To help us organize and analyze our qualitative data, Sarah and Matt are excited to announce the newest addition to the Two Rabbits team: Ignacio Zenteno.

Ignacio is a math teacher from Chile, and is currently studying for his master’s in Human Development and Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His favorite activities include practicing yoga and spending time in nature. He is very excited to join the Two Rabbits team and is, “fully convinced that through education we can become better human beings and create a more harmonious world.”

Join us in welcoming Ignacio to Two Rabbits! Welcome to the team!

My name is Kylie Richmond - I am a student at Loyola University Chicago, and I just spent the last month interning with Two Rabbits. This was a once in a life time experience, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to learn about the power of indigenous community-based education.

I focused my time in Mintoum, one of the Two Rabbits pilot villages, so I could spend as much time with the students, parents, and teachers as possible. I also spent time in the nearby town of Lomié where ASTRADHE (the Two Rabbits implementer) is based. I had two main responsibilities:

1)      Pilot testing children’s books written in the Baka language, including a Baka alphabet book, a phonics book, and a short story titled Ewasa.

2)      Create promotional videos for the program so the world can get a better understanding of the program in action.

I started off just in Mintom observing classes and village life, and getting parental consent for children to be filmed. The students were very excited to see me! I was a bit of a distraction to the class, but I was amazed at how dedicated the preschoolers and teachers were to their learning. One of the teachers, Souleko, reassured me that while the kids were timid on their first day with me, they would warm up to me soon. He was right about that! I loved playing and learning with the kids, and getting to know them during my stay.

Next, I worked with the teachers, Nyame and Souleko, on piloting the books. I started by training them in how to use the books as teaching tools, and then how we would test them together with kids.  Testing for each book was different, but all focused on making sure the content is clear, relevant, and understandable. The kids’ favorite was the short story about “Ewasa,” a man who falls asleep by a fire and burns his butt – needless to say, it was a hit!

It was amazing seeing the kids interact with the books! There is so little print in the village - these story books were a visual and tangible learning tool, and they created such a positive impact on the learning environment.

My time with Two Rabbits was everything I could have asked for. The entire village was welcoming: Nyame was even kind enough to let me stay in her home, and help cook my meals. I got to know the Mintoum community on a personal level, and experienced what day to day life is like. I stayed up late talking with parents, sharing stories about my community and about theirs. Although we live such different lives, we were able to share and understand each other’s culture and learn from one another.

Staying in Mintoum also gave me the opportunity to see the kids waking up and walking to school together. This walk is not a long one, but all the kids enjoy their morning time together and are excited every day to go to school, and especially to sing and dance to the Two Rabbits educational songs!

Working with Two Rabbits, I firmly believe that education is an important right for every human and that the Baka need a program that suits their unique needs and culture. Two Rabbits does just that, providing an empowering education that the parents, teachers, and students in every Baka community deserve.

Sarah and Matt are excited to announce the addition of Kylie Richmond as the newest member of the Two Rabbits team!

Kylie is a California native and a current Sophomore at Loyola University Chicago majoring in International Studies with a minor in French. She is currently studying development and social change with the School for International Training in Yaounde in Cameroon, where she has spent the last three months.

For the next month, she will be joining Two Rabbits team as part of an exciting partnership with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Kylie will be working with ASTRADHE at Two Rabbit’s preschool site in Mintom to distribute low-resource alphabet and story books, developed specifically for Baka children. As part of the initiative, she will be testing these books with Baka children and teaching, assessing the relevance of the materials and their potential impact. While on site, she will also work to generate content in the form of videos and other social media content, developing exciting new ways of communicating the Two Rabbits process and experience to our partners around the world.

Kylie is excited for the next month, eager to share her findings and cannot wait to create some awesome new videos! 

Welcome, Kylie!

After two years of piloting, six weeks of data collection, and endless hours of work, Two Rabbits is proud and excited to report findings from our recent impact evaluation! Read on to find out what we have accomplished and what this means for our students.

Background. Two Rabbits conducted a small-scale randomized controlled trial of our model from September 2015 to June 2017.  We created one year of preschool curriculum in the Baka language and cultural style, and uploaded it onto hand crank-powered mp3 devices. Project staff trained community-nominated lesson facilitators on child-centered pedagogy and mp3 device operation, who then facilitated daily learning sessions for a total of 250 Baka children age 3-6.

Data collection. We gathered baseline data from a sample of ten Baka villages, and implemented the program in two villages randomly selected from these ten, over two academic years. Our targeted outcomes were increased school readiness (measured through student literacy outcomes), and increased cultural pride (measured through interviews with parents). We measured these skills at baseline and endline among first graders, to test program benefits beyond the preschool year.

Results. Our data shows significant improvements in student literacy skills and community sense of cultural pride. 

In literacy, Two Rabbits alumni have reading skills that are twice as high as their peers in the control group. The table here shows average performance on various emergent literacy tasks by students in the treatment and control groups. Across tasks, Two Rabbits students' scores are double their non-participating peers. For example, Two Rabbits participants could read six letters per minute from a list, compared to just three letters per minute among the control group. Asked to find a requested letter among a list of letters, Two Rabbits alumni could find an average of 4.5 per minute, compared to 2.5 per minute of control group children. 

We also found that Two Rabbits villages had greater gender parity in reading outcomes than control villages. In control villages, girls performed just 21% as well as boys in reading letters from a list, and just 11% as well as boys in pointing out a requested letter from a list. In Two Rabbits villages, however, girls performed 91% as well and 65% as well as boys on these respective tasks. While boys still consistently outperform girls across all villages, it is promising that Two Rabbits has demonstrated success in closing this gap.

Regarding cultural pride, parents expressed greater pride in their culture and hope for the future in treatment villages than control villages. Parents in Two Rabbits villages felt that "Baka children are proud of their culture," and that as adults "we ourselves are satisfied, lead a fulfilled life, and have a culture that is rich in potential.” They felt deeply justified in their sense of pride, saying that "God created the Baka, and He makes no mistakes. He says that Baka children should not be ashamed to be Baka.” In control villages, parents agreed that Baka culture is important, but noted that Baka children tend to be ashamed and abandon cultural traditions. Parents were more optimistic about their children’s ability to learn in school than in control villages. While control village parents emphasized skills that their children lack (like the ability to speak French), parents in Two Rabbits villages noted their children’s strengths (such as curiosity, intellect, and playfulness) as effective learners.

Together, these findings indicate that Two Rabbits has positively impacted its target outcomes: boosting children's literacy skills, reducing gender gaps, increasing cultural pride, and increasing parents' confidence in their child's ability to learn. It is important to note that, while it was a randomized experiment, our sample size was small and so our result should be interpreted with caution. That said, with this preliminary evidence in hand, we are poised expand to more villages, and to update our content to be even more effective. 

We are proud of what our learners have accomplished, and grateful to our community of supporters that have made this possible. We look forward to expanding to bring the joy of culturally adapted learning to more communities!

Two Rabbits' new website is alive and kicking! Our new site is sleeker, intuitive to navigate, and makes supporting our work easier than ever. We invite you to explore Two Rabbits' new home, and tell us what you think! My favorite new features include:

1. A donate button that that allows you to support our efforts with just the click of a button. Impulsive shoppers are welcome to give it a try - just $50 allows you to put a child through preschool for a whole year!

2. Team bios that introduce our US-based team, Cameroon-based partners, and our board of directors. Get to know the people that make the magic happen!

3. A contact page that lets you send us some love via email directly through our website. You can also give us a shout on Facebook and Twitter - our accounts are linked at the bottom of every page!

4. News articles featuring our work. We've been getting some exciting press lately, on the radio print, and online! Scroll to the bottom of our homepage to find links to the articles and see what the buzz is all about.

Give our page a whirl, tell us what you think, and leave us some love in the comments!