In March 2020, the government of Cambodia made the difficult decision to close schools due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since this announcement, the All Children Reading–Cambodia project has been working to ensure students are practicing reading and writing skills every day at home using online tools that parents are familiar with, like Facebook and YouTube, alongside encouraging use of printed books provided with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Helping children to learn at home online can be difficult for parents around the world, even in well-resourced environments. In Cambodia, the situation is particularly challenging, as most families don’t own computers, and many parents have limited IT skills. However, Facebook is commonly used on smartphones even in rural households. Therefore, the project has concentrated on using this existing medium to reach parents and children.