Standing on the shoulders of giants.

How an open source platform is creating storybooks for children at scale in mother tongue languages.

10 red balloons

Almost a decade ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ran an online contest that challenged netizens to be the first to submit the locations of ten red weather balloons moored at undisclosed locations all across the continental United States. The balloons were at easily accessible locations, as well as visible from nearby roads.

In what would most certainly be called a “hack” today, a team from MIT created their own network that would find the balloons for them. They enlisted friends — and friends of friends — to report any balloon sightings on their page. The network was viral, and, in this early example of crowdsourcing, the MIT team completed the challenge in just nine hours.

A different ask

At the end of 2018, Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, an open repository of high-quality children’s storybooks in multiple languages decided to take up a challenge of a very different kind: one of accelerating the creation of children’s books in languages where they were needed the most.

The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report tells us that 40% of the global population — over 2 billion people — do not have access to education in a language they speak or understand. The report also highlights the fact that speaking a language that is not spoken in the classroom frequently holds back a child’s learning.

The widespread availability of more reading resources in mother tongue languages could go a long way. In fact, research suggests that they could improve learning outcomes by as much as 40%. The challenges, however, are scale and speed.

Could StoryWeaver create digital libraries in, say, a hundred languages for children across the world? And could they be launched on International Mother Language Day 2019?

Age of collaboration

StoryWeaver believes that children deserve to have joyful reading material in their mother tongues so that they can become readers and lifelong learners. This belief is shared by language champions, literacy organisations, educators, and many others, all across the world. The StoryWeaver network of collaborators was built on this shared belief, in a campaign called “Freedom to Read.”

Technology enabled this audacious effort, but it was compassion and commitment that fuelled it to become a 100-language-wide campaign to create open digital libraries for thousands of children who may never even have seen storybooks in their mother tongue languages before.

The storybooks are all-digital, and completely free to use, download, or print. Open licensing of original content ensured a very high quality of source material, while a rigorous system of peer review maintained the high standard of translation.

Languages in need

Today, there is a growing awareness that languages play a vital role in development, and in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue. With only a few hundred languages having a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred used in the digital world, there are thousands of languages fading into extinction.

“Freedom to Read” has launched open digital libraries in several Indian and international languages that are underserved.

Tribal languages

Take Pawari, a tribal language spoken in parts of Maharashtra, India. Its champion? A young translator and teacher, Amit Dudave, who realised that many of his students struggle to express themselves in the language they are being taught in. He believes that if they can access books in their mother tongue, they will be drawn to learning. Read Amit’s storybooks in Pawari here.

Another tribal language from Maharashtra, India is Korku, which has no written script of its own. Unnati Institute for Social and Educational Change has been working with Korku-speaking children for several years now, and are now translating storybooks from Marathi to Korku, using the Devanagari script. Read Unnati ISEC’s storybooks in Korku here.

In West Bengal, India, an organisation called Suchana set out to address the problem of low learning levels among many Adivasi primary school-going children. They discovered that these children, whose mother tongues are Kora and Santali, were unable to understand much in school due to all teaching materials being in Bengali. Since then, they have been creating storybooks in Kora and Santali. Read Suchana’s storybooks here.

Marginalised communities

Bundelkhand, India is home to Bundelkhandi, a language spoken by millions. However, few learning resources exist in Bundelkhandi. Language champion, PhD scholar, researcher, and storyteller Ankit Dwivedi had been exploring local language learning possibilities for children when he began translating stories on StoryWeaver. Read Ankit’s storybooks here.

Surjapuri is spoken in pockets of Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam, in India, as well as in Bangladesh by 1.2 million people, however, reading material in Surjapuri is practically non-existent. Azad India Foundation (AIF) conducts learning centres for children between 6 and 9, across 73 villages in Bihar, India, and has been translated storybooks into Surjapuri to serve these children better. Read AIF’s storybooks in Surjapuri here.

Underserved languages

To address the scarcity of Serbian storybooks among children, Ana Jovic, a language teacher, has been creating digital storybooks in Serbian on StoryWeaver. Her commitment is such that she hopes to translate a story a day. Read Ana’s storybooks in Serbian here.

REHMA is a champion of children belonging to South Asian communities, and helps members of such communities learn their mother tongues. They have used StoryWeaver to create English-Urdu bilingual storybooks, to serve readers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the Middle East. Read REHMA’s bilingual storybooks in English-Urdu here.

Languages left behind

Chinyanja is a Bantu language, widely spoken in Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. It is also the mother tongue of Zambian writer, translator, editor, and poet, Agnes NS Nyendwa. She noticed the huge gap for children’s books in Chinyanja and is, both, translating, and raising funds for the books to be made available to a wider audience. Read Agnes’ storybooks in Chinyanja here.

Marwari is spoken in Rajasthan, India, by over 20 million speakers, however, there are very few written resources available. SNS Foundation works with children attending government schools to bridge gaps in learning. They have been translating storybooks from Hindi to create a digital library in Marwari. Read SNS Foundation’s storybooks in Marwari here.

Languages that build reading habits

As children grow up all across Africa, they communicate primarily in their mother tongue. African Library Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) believes that engaging, high-quality material in their mother tongue will help children build a reading habit. On StoryWeaver, librarians from five countries are translating storybooks into Igbo, Hausa, Fante, Ewe, Yoruba, Kikuyu, Luganda, Swahili, and Zulu. Read AfLIA’s storybooks in Igbo, Hausa, Fante, Ewe, Yoruba, Kikuyu, Luganda, Swahili, and Zulu here.

The Darakht-e Danesh Library is a digital repository of open educational resources (OERs) for teachers and students in Afghanistan. Created to increase access to high-quality, locally adapted educational resources, the Library has partnered with StoryWeaver to translate storybooks into Farsi and Pashto. Read Darakht-e Danesh’s storybooks in Farsi and Pashto here.

Building a reading habit needs early readers to have access to plentiful reading material. While there are several reading resources in Filipino, very few are available for free, and that limits their usefulness. Filipino writer and translator, Kaye Suscang, believes that children learn best by reading books in a language that they understand, and is committed to helping create storybooks that can be enjoyed widely. Read Kaye’s storybooks in Filipino here.

Unity of purpose

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of collaborators, it is testament to the scale and quality achieved when a common purpose draws people together. Building on strengths. Pooling together knowledge and experience. Sharing abilities, and ideas. Honing and improving the end result. And finally, taking back resources that will serve the children they work with.

This is more than a chronicle of collaboration. It’s the story — actually, thousands of stories — of collective might.