As an­oth­er year draws to a close, AL­TA cel­e­brates those who have em­braced our mis­sion as tu­tors, Read­ing Cir­cle guides and sup­port­ers in cash or kind. The gift of your time, tal­ent and trea­sure breathes life in­to the AL­TA fam­i­ly as we step in­to 2026 stronger than ever.

Pro­vid­ing qual­i­ty lit­er­a­cy in­struc­tion, through in-per­son and vir­tu­al class­es as well as the in­ter­ac­tive, web-based AL­TA On­line pro­gramme, re­quires fund­ing. In this sea­son of gifts and giv­ing, AL­TA thanks and high­lights those who have in­vest­ed to em­pow­er lives through lit­er­a­cy.

Re­pub­lic Bank, through its Pow­er to Make a Dif­fer­ence ini­tia­tive, has gift­ed AL­TA with un­wa­ver­ing sup­port for more than a decade. While con­tin­u­ing to sup­port our free class­es and Read­ing Cir­cles, Re­pub­lic pro­vid­ed the re­sources to move AL­TA On­line from vi­sion to re­al­i­ty. Re­pub­lic’s com­mit­ment to fund­ing the de­vel­op­ment of the AL­TA On­line soft­ware means that over 6,500 chil­dren, teens and adults have been in­ter­act­ing with the screens on com­put­ers, tablets or smart­phones to im­prove their lit­er­a­cy. Lit­er­a­cy at their fin­ger­tips—any­time, any­where.

Thanks to the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion and Shell Trinidad and To­ba­go EPIC (Ex­tra­or­di­nary Projects Im­pact­ing Com­mu­ni­ties) award, our train­ing room at Bel­mont has been en­hanced and now boasts an AL­TA On­line Hub. Six­ty stu­dents from neigh­bour­ing schools are im­prov­ing their lit­er­a­cy with dai­ly AL­TA On­line ses­sions at the hub.

AL­TA On­line con­tin­ues to ex­pand its reach through cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship for schools seek­ing an ef­fec­tive way to tack­le the cri­sis in read­ing. In 2025, stu­dents iden­ti­fied as hav­ing lit­er­a­cy chal­lenges at 12 sec­ondary and 18 pri­ma­ry schools re­ceived the gift of AL­TA On­line e-books from EPOS De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd, Fer­nan­des Foun­da­tion, Sco­tia­bank (Sco­tiaRise Com­mu­ni­ty Part­ner), Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny, Peren­co T&T Ltd and CIBC. AL­TA On­line would not be in these schools with­out you!

Thanks to the RBC Ch­agua­nas staff who raised their own funds to do­nate head­phones for AL­TA On­line stu­dents and to Guay­may En­er­gy Al­liance Cred­it Union for spon­sor­ing the print­ing of the AL­TA On­line Men­tor Man­u­al for our trained men­tors to guide AL­TA On­line stu­dents to get the max­i­mum learn­ing from the pro­gramme.

Our Youth Lit pro­gramme, fa­cil­i­tat­ing young learn­ers aged nine to 15, con­tin­ues to flour­ish, host­ed by NALIS at ten li­braries and fund­ed by a decade-long part­ner­ship with the Bermudez Group, re­cent­ly sup­ple­ment­ed by Unit­ed Way Trinidad and To­ba­go. As an af­ter-school pro­gramme, chil­dren of­ten ar­rive in need of nour­ish­ment and they tru­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the added gift of Bermudez bis­cuits.

An­nu­al con­tri­bu­tions and deeds of covenant go a long way to re­duce the time and ef­fort we have to de­vote to seek­ing funds for our work. Spe­cial thanks to faith­ful donors Charlett & Gat­cliffe, Bermudez Bis­cuit Com­pa­ny, GA Far­rell & As­so­ciates, Tama­ra Toolsie and all who spon­sor stu­dents every year.

We thank those who pro­vide ser­vices in kind—Pep­per for as­sist­ing with our me­dia cam­paigns and Pro­fes­sion­al Com­put­ing Ltd for step­ping in to pro­vide AL­TA with their EZ­Pay Pay­roll Ap­pli­ca­tion Sys­tem.

All these ded­i­cat­ed al­lies co-au­thor every AL­TA suc­cess sto­ry. Our stu­dents gift us with their trust. Their shared sto­ries are tes­ti­monies to the sup­port we have re­ceived through­out the year. As so many of our stu­dents have brave­ly done, you too can write your AL­TA sto­ry by be­com­ing an AL­TA tu­tor, Read­ing Cir­cle Guide or spon­sor.

If you or some­one you know is in­ter­est­ed in be­com­ing a tu­tor, Read­ing Cir­cle guide, spon­sor, or join­ing a class, call 624-2582 or email al­ta­pos.tt@gmail.com.

Keep up to date with AL­TA on Face­book, Twit­ter, and In­sta­gram: AL­TA TT