Nominee:

African Storybook

(Visit the project's Facebook page: African Storybook)

Presentation of the project

The people behind African Storybook believes, that you will not experience the joy of reading, if you do not have access to books in a language that you are familiar with. Furthermore, people must have the ability to choose a title, which sparks a personal interest in reading. This initiative addresses these issues for the disadvantaged 80% of African children, for whom there is a severe shortage of books for early reading, especially in a local language.

The initiative supplies access to a library of over 1000 titles, nearly 6000 translations and 174 of African languages, through an innovative open license digital publishing model. Books are accessible in multiple delivery formats e.g. online, offline, in print and in a free reading application. Furthermore, communities, educators and their children can create their own picture storybooks in local languages on the website, and, through translation into English, make their stories accessible to a continent-wide audience. With the open license, reading promotion initiatives and events also have easy access to various books.

With thousands of openly licensed picture storybooks in languages of Africa, the African Storybook website strives to improve children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination.

Impact

The African Storybook addresses the widespread challenge of low literacy in schools in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. The project works with local educators to develop, publish and make storybooks and support material accessible to native children, from early childhood to the first three years of schooling. African Storybook’s supply of books is constantly improving in diversity, quality and quantity.