Timeline
2023
Inaugural Chess4Charity tournament (5 children sponsored) – NL
School Supply Drive – NL (100 items)
Recycling Drive – AB ($300 collected)
2022
Inaugural SpellingBee4Literacy
First event post-pandemic
Halloween4Hunger Food Drive (1000 items collected)
2021
Halloween4Hunger food drive (500 items collected)
2020
Ground-based operations suspended due to COVID-19 Pandemic
2019
10 Children Sponsored (70 children sponsored in total)
Inaugural Halloween4Hunger Food Drive (500 items collected)
2018
10 Children Sponsored (60 children sponsored in total)
2017
16 Children Sponsored (50 children sponsored in total)
2016
13 Children Sponsored (34 children sponsored in total)
2015
15 Children Sponsored (21 children sponsored in total)
2014
Inaugural Lunchboxes4Literacy Event
6 Children Sponsored
2013
Partnership with MSMF
2012
First U4L Team of 5 members was founded, consisting of:
- Nitish Bhatt
- Darcy Taylor
- Neria Aylward
- Johanna Cole
- Andrew Nash
2011
U4L is founded as a small blog
A Mission For Change
United4Literacy was founded from the vision to make a meaningful change. Though the initiatives of our group have evolved over many years, our vision and mission to create meaningful change to address the issue of illiteracy have always been constant. The roots of our mission and vision lay in the experiences of our founder, Nitish Bhatt, from a family trip to India in 2005.
In 2009, we envisioned a vision to create a meaningful change in the lives of children through utilizing literacy as a tool for social and economic empowerment. The first step towards our vision started as a family initiative by donating yearly on special occasions to less fortunate children in India. Two years later, United4Literacy was created.
First, U4L began spreading awareness about the importance of literacy by blogging about how individuals can help the illiteracy problem around the world. From this, we found a small team of like-minded youth who were passionate to create meaningful change to tackle the illiteracy issue.
In 2013, the United4Literacy team established our first annual Lunchboxes4Literacy as a fundraiser to support meaningful change through providing free, accessible, and sustainable basic education. To achieve our vision, we collaborated with the Canadian registered charity Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation (MSMF). To date, U4L has successfully supported free, accessible, and sustainable education for 75 high school children who otherwise would not have an opportunity to attend school.
Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, U4L had to suspend all in-person activities. However, our new leader, Tanish Bhatt (once our youngest team member) envisioned to bring support and change to our local community. In 2022, he ran our first SpellingBee4Literacy, a fundraiser for school supplies to donate to the Single Parent Association of Newfoundland. He recognized inequities communities may face locally in Canada in regards to education as a whole, and made it part of U4L’s mission to raise awareness to issues both locally and globally.
Today, United4Literacy is founded on a vision that was sparked by a small incident 18 years ago, and has immensely evolved from this simple incident. Today, we are supported by a dedicated team and community in the vision of creating meaningful change by uniting communities.