African Storybook Initiative

About

Saide’s African Storybook initiative helps overcome a major barrier to learning: the severe shortage of contextually appropriate storybooks and materials in indigenous languages for young African children learning to read through working with local language speakers, educators and artists to develop, publish and encourage use of such storybooks. Visit our platform for over 3 000 unique openly licensed picture storybooks in the languages of Africa for children, aged two to ten, for their literacy development, enjoyment and imagination. Over 200 languages of Africa are represented on the website, as well as tools to enable communities, particularly those whose languages are under-resourced, to translate, adapt and create storybooks in their languages.

ASb’s Reader App, enables parents and children to create a library on their device and to read storybooks even when they are offline. Its Maker App enables them to create their own picture storybooks offline and publish them when connected to the internet. The storybooks are immediately available in the Storybooks App category on the ASb website. Both Apps are downloadable from Google Play and the iStore.

We support organisations, educators and communities in developing storybooks - translating, creating and publishing them - and in effective use. Organisations needing our services, can approach us to run story development, publishing, preparing print runs and using the ASb website and its tools.

Funding

• Comic Relief
  89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TP UK , +44 20 7820 2000

Staff members