Aparna Kapur, Assistant Editor, Pratham Books recalls our recent writing workshop with conservationists and research scholars at the Nature Conservation Foundation, India.

I’m less than two months old in Pratham Books and have heard all about the various writing, translating, outreach workshops conducted by the team. So when I was asked if I wanted to tag along to a workshop about making Level 1 and Level 2 picture books, I was keen to observe and said yes immediately. Of course, the luxury of silent observing was not given to me and I was assigned an activity to conduct. Trying to create an illusion of choice, I happily agreed.

The workshop was being conducted for the members of the Nature Conservation Foundation. The NCF office is located on a quiet street that’s lined with trees, and when we walked in we were immediately met with the bustle of breakfast time. We were then ushered into a room, which would soon contain eleven workshop participants and four workshop conductors. Once we figured out the logistics of seating (the view was beautiful but the room was snug) and the mechanics of projecting (acquiring the right wire), we were ready!

As way of introduction, we went around the room telling everyone who our favourite children’s book character is, which is how I think we all should introduce ourselves from now on.

Then we talked about Pratham Books and picture books, and read out some titles from StoryWeaver. This was followed by a quick tour of the StoryWeaver website where we showed them how to browse the site, search for images and create books. The NCF folk were involved and enthusiastic.

This was followed by a coffee break where everyone got to enjoy the generous collection of picture books that Bijal Vachharajani, Consultant Editor, Pratham Books had brought along. After coffee, we divided the eleven of them into groups for the first activity. Each group was given a list of rules for making a picture book, and had to arrange them in the order they considered most important. This led to some fascinating debates about the balance of text and images, the necessity of morals and optimism, and the need for rhythm and rhyme.

After that we told the groups to come up with a simple story based on eight random pictures. We had delightedly strung an outlandish sequence of pictures the previous day, and this served as their framework. Each time we moved to the next picture, the teams let out a groan and we smiled in (evil) satisfaction. The three stories we got at the end of it, however, were amusing and coherent. That’s when I realised that each of these eleven people had a knack for storytelling!

My realisation was confirmed when we they began to think of ideas. Considering their work, we did expect interesting environmental themes. But we were an excited group of editors when their pitches included carnivorous plants, geckos, and misunderstood wolves!

After a well-earned lunch, we all went back to work. And by all, I mean the NCF people worked on the drafts of their stories while we sat like invigilators, reading their drafts and occasionally helping them find their way out of tricky spots in their manuscripts.

Finally, everyone read out their stories. Some employees who were not attending the workshop had given us explicit instructions to invite them for the idea-sharing and storytelling part of the workshop. They ended up being a participative and enthusiastic audience. We trust that this workshop gave the NCF team a foundation on which they will go on to write many many picture books. In return they gave us some fantastic ideas and superb stories!

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On the occasion of International Mother Language Day, 2023, we launched our Urdu Digital Reading Programme in collaboration with UNICEF Maharashtra, State Council of Educational Research and Training, Maharashtra, and Regional Academic Authority, Aurangabad (RAA).

UNESCO reports that 40% of the world population does not have access to education in a language they speak or understand¹. This year’s International Mother Language Day theme² emphasises the importance of ‘promoting multilingualism and multilingual education’ in order to ‘foster quality, inclusive, and equitable learning’ for all.

We at Pratham Books Storyweaver are deeply committed to the vision of SDG 4: Quality Education for All, and to the path set out in India’s National Education Policy³ from Learning to Read to Reading to Learn. We firmly believe that learning to read in one’s mother tongue helps make education more engaging, meaningful, and enjoyable for children.

Pratham Books Reading Programme in Urdu on StoryWeaver

Pratham Books Urdu Digital Reading Programme on StoryWeaver offers open-source, high quality, digital, structured, reading resources in Urdu language to increase access to mother-language libraries and promote a culture of reading. The digital library comprises thematically diverse and grade-levelled storybooks for young learners to access freely.

RAA Aurangabad team at Pratham Books Capacity Building Workshop

These Urdu story books have been created by the partner resource team at Regional Academic Authority, Aurangabad  after participating in Pratham Books StoryWeaver's capacity building workshops. These workshops included editorial translation and review capacity building training, and training for digital translation and publishing to help create level appropriate picture book translations.

 

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References:
[1]https://en.unesco.org/news/40-don-t-access-education-language-they-understand
[2] https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/imld-2023-concept-note-en.pdf
[3]https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf

 

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Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India. As a publisher serving every child in India, Pratham Books has always pushed the boundaries when it comes to exploring innovative ways in which to create access to joyful stories and have been fortunate in finding partners to collaborate with who share this vision.
 
In 2015, Pratham Books' increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader, we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content is now available on StoryWeaver, which is a digital platform that hosts stories in languages from India and beyond, so that every child can have an endless stream of stories in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. All stories on the platform are openly licensed.

Illustration by Kabini Amin from Dum Dum-a-Dum Biryani by Gayathri Tirthapura

We are looking for an Assistant Project Manager - Storyweaver

This position will work closely with the StoryWeaver content team to support the expansion of StoryWeaver’s global language content footprint. The role would involve identifying and  nurturing partner relationships for content in languages, supporting core team to maximise  partner engagement and support reporting and documentation. Must be someone who has the ability to network and make connections and is up to date with tech and social media trends. They also need to build strong relationships remotely. As nurturing language communities is a key focus area, a love for languages will help in bringing passion and commitment.

Key Responsibilities

• Project level support and coordination across various stakeholders to ensure timely completion of project deliverables.
• Identify and nurture partnership networks for language content.
• Support the core team in follow up on contracts, reporting, documentation and campaign processes.
• Support and facilitate translation workshops for scaling quality language resources on the platform.
• Work closely with the internal teams to implement StoryWeaver’s language goals.
• Help with research and documentation for impact assessment from content partner orgs.
• Contribute new ideas for both the function and platform.
• Support platform feature enhancements through testing.

Required skills

• Proven experience as a Project manager
• Ability to network and make connections
• Excellent organization skills
• Familiar with latest technology, trends in Social Media.
• Excellent communication skills in English and any other Indian language
• Willingness to travel to all project locations
• 1-2 years of experience

 Nice to have but not mandatory:

• Interest in languages, communities, books and education
• Social sector experience
• Fluency in the 2-3 languages

Location:

This is a full-time position based out of Bangalore

Compensation:

Salary will be commensurate with qualification and experience.

Write to us:

Email your resume with Assistant Project Manager- Storyweaver in the subject line to [email protected]

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