written by Purvi Shah, Head - Digital Initiatives, Pratham Books 

Earlier this year, MIT Solve asked the question 'How can teachers and educators provide accessible, personalized, and creative learning experiences for all?'  More than 400 innovators from nearly 80 countries around the globe submitted solutions from which StoryWeaver was chosen to be one of the eight members to work on the challenge. 

Take a look at the StoryWeaver pitch at the Finals and I'll tell you the story of the Teachers & Educators Solver Class of 2018. 

The day after Solve Challenge Finals, eight individuals from all across the world sat huddled with coffees and a shot of inspiration on a cold New York morning, sharing the stories of the journeys that led us to that very room. We had just been selected as the new Teachers & Educators Solver class, and our orientation session was nothing short of invigorating, lighting a spark in each of us.  

It was humbling to see that while we came from different countries and different backgrounds, our stories were similar, deeply rooted in our personal experiences. Yet we were all working towards a common goal: creating affordable, accessible, high-quality resources to educate our children.

My Story: How Stories Can Transform a Child

Personally, my mother has always stood up for me and for what is right. Growing up, this gave me the utmost confidence to be—and do—what I wanted. It also made me wonder what part I could play in making sure that every child lived her life with the same sense of security and confidence.

I’ve worked with Pratham Books, a unique nonprofit children’s book publishing house, whose mission is to put a book in every child’s hand, for 12 years now. I know that most underserved children are first generation readers and don’t have access to quality education.

Even more troubling is that their parents are often not equipped to help empower their children's learning. To support these children, we need to entrust this responsibility to their next circle of influence, their teachers, and give these teachers all the support they need.

This is why I am excited to lead the StoryWeaver platform for Pratham Books. StoryWeaver’s innovative publishing model addresses the inequality that exists globally—not enough children’s books, in not enough languages, with issues of poor access and affordability.

The platform provides open access to a large repository of storybooks, and has tools that allow the content to be translated and versioned to suit local needs. StoryWeaver has stories in tribal and endangered languages, and stories on overcoming domestic violence, civil rights, and STEM, which inspire children to learn effectively and dream big.

StoryWeaver puts the power in the hands of teachers to use, create, and adapt reading resources that help transform children.

Their Stories: Seven Inspiring Solutions

Carlos Pereira’s 11-year-old daughter, Clara, has cerebral palsy, making it impossible for her to walk or speak. Carlos spent a lot of time educating himself about his daughter’s disability. From there on, he built a series of services for people with disabilities. One of them is Livox, a software for Android tablets that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence that enables people with speech-related disabilities to communicate up to 20 times faster.

Having migrated from Korea to London, Heejae Lim understood the challenges faced by migrant parents. She founded TalkingPoints, an education technology nonprofit with a mission to make it easy for any parent to be actively engaged in their child’s education. The multilingual communication platform allows parents to communicate with teachers across language barriers.

Melissa Corto grew up with a special needs sibling and having worked extensively in the space, she knew that technology could aid special educators in effective teaching to improve results. She founded Education Modified to empower teachers with the latest research-based instructional strategies to effectively implement students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEP).

Passionate about seeing hands-on education manifest around the world, Heather Beem moved from her base in Boston to Ghana to start Practical Education Network, an organization that equips West African STEM teachers to employ inquiry-based pedagogies in their classrooms, using low-cost, locally-available materials.

Priya Lakhani founded Century Tech as a way to solve the crisis levels of student underachievement and teacher workload burden in the UK. Century is an educational platform that provides personalized learning for students, leveling the playing field by improving learning outcomes for all users. It empowers teachers with the right tools to deliver meaningful education.

Rudolph Ampofo went through the complete cycle of the Ghanaian education system, throughout which he always felt that he and his peers had limited access to education resources. Rudolph currently leads Eneza Education Ghana, an organization working towards improving access to quality and affordable educational resources by leveraging SMS, USSD, and web applications.

When she was 20 years old, Audrey Cheng moved to Kenya to work in venture capital. She quickly noticed that most tech experts in Kenya were self-taught, while many university IT grads could not find jobs. She realized that universities taught outdated skills that did not match the needs of companies, so she founded Moringa School to provide young Africans with in-demand digital skills to advance their careers.

The Story We Wish to Write

Each one of us Solver teams are inspired to do what we do because of our unique experiences. We left the Solver orientation session with not only a fresh view of our work, but also with new ideas, theories, plans, and designs to work towards our common goal: supporting the valuable resources that educate our children.

So, as the year progresses, we hope to partner to work towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

 

comment (1)

---

Soumya Menon is an animation filmmaker and illustrator trained at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She likes to travel often, and try her hand at other occupations such as painting walls. Soumya shares how she took Reeti from 'Reeti and Mithu' from a rough sketch to a young girl bursting with colour. You can follow Soumya on Twitter, Instagram and her blog.​

I wanted to set the initial scenes for this story indoors- in small, confined spaces, to try and draw a parallel between Reeti being trapped indoors (as she's moping at home during the summer holidays) and Mithu in his cage.

In the last series of images towards the end of the story, I wanted to introduce a sense of flight and movement, as Reeti returns to school and her friends (not mentioning Mithu and what happens to him as I don't want to give away the ending here!)

 

Be the first to comment.

---

Amrita Tripathy, Marketing and Communcations Manager at Pratham Books does a round up of her favourite stories starring Daddy dearest.  

Call him Daddy, Appa, Baba, Acchan, Abbu, Babuji or Pitaji.  He is strong. He is loving. He is the protector and nurturer. He is no less than a superhero. My ‘baba’ is my role model. I’m sure your father must be your idol too. This Father’s Day, we bring to you some of our interesting stories on this real-life superhero – father. 

Anu and her love for moustaches- adapted from the original story by 'बाबाच्या मिश्या' (in Marathi) by Madhuri Purandare and translated by Jayashree Gopinath

Moustaches are so interesting  and it becomes double intriguing when dads have it. Some have thick ones, while some have thin ones. There are many without one and some have long ones forming a beard. Our little Anu is in love with his daddy’s moustache! Actually, Anu likes anyone who has a moustache. No sooner has Anu seen a moustache and her mind brims with wonderful ideas. To know the ideas, read this interesting story. 

Biju Spins Some Magic by Jaya Jaitly  and Bhramara Nayak  

Biju and his family are weavers in rural Odisha. They create beautiful fabrics and sell them in big cities in India and abroad. This is the tale of Biju’s adventures when he accompanies his father to Delhi to sell the saris, and in the process, impresses a city boy with his skill. With the traditional patachitra artwork, this story is truly a nostalgia of my childhood memories, of my homeland and those train journeys with baba. Not to ignore the Odisha handicrafts. A must read is what we suggest!

Cheenu's Gift by Sridala Swami and Suvidha Mistry

We all have waited eagerly in our school days for our dads to pick us from their busy schedule. Add to it, the joy of going around the city and helping dad get his works done. You never know when he gets happy with your help and gets you a surprise gift. Cheenu also gets a wonderful gift from his appa for being a good child. 

DeeSy short stories 3 : Connecting the Dots... by  Dr. Deepti S., Alicia Souza and Upamanyu Bhattacharyya

This wonderful short story showcases the importance of parents giving time to their kids in the midst of their busy schedule – office appointments, working on laptops and mobile phones and even on weekends and vacations. Sweet and impactful, this story says a lot about a father-son relationship in today’s time. So, why wait anymore! Let’s just connect the dots… 

Raza Meets the King by Subhadra Sen Gupta and Tapas Guha

Who doesn’t love reading stories of Akbar, The Great? We all did. We all still do. Here’s a story from history when great Mughal King ruled the country where Raza's father Rahmat Khan is the royal tailor to the emperor. When they go to the palace to deliver the Emperor's new summer clothes, Raza realizes that the emperor is not completely satisfied with his father's designs. Raza wants desperately to help his father. But what can a little boy do? Find out.

Come Home, Papa  by Apoorva Mathur, Hari Kumar Nair, Kabini Amin, Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, Soumya Menon, Vartika Sharma  and Vishnu M Nair

What do you do when our father goes missing? Would you look for him? To whom will you turn for help?  Read Vishakha's tale to unravel this mystery. 

A girl with a lantern by Ravi Ranjan Goswami, Sonal Goyal, Sumit Sakhuja and Sumit Sakhuja

In the pitch-dark night, little Neelima goes in search of her dad. Did she manage to find him? Was she scared? Why did her dog bark? Know more. 

Springloaded by Chenél Ferreira, Sam Wilson and Thea Nicole de Klerk

Neo’s father is an inventor. When he invents a helicopter hat and flies away, Neo decides to make an invention of her own. Like father, like son! A book with no words, just wonderful pictures that tell a beautiful story. 

The Parrot with a Broken Beak adapted from ٹوٹی چونچ والا طوطا by Shahid Anwar, Shailja Jain Chougule and  translated by Manisha Chaudhry  

Her father's pen calls out to Kasni. Should she, or should she not pick it up? After she uses it, she finds an angry father and an angry parrot. A tale with charming colours to make any child happy! And for grown-ups, this story is a childhood memory. To know why, read the entire story.

The Magic Powder - A Folktale from Myanmar by Greystroke and P.G. Dinesh

Once upon a time, in a little village on the banks of the Irrawaddy river, there lived a young woman called Thuza. She was very happily married to handsome young Theingi. But there was one problem that nagged Thuza – her husband believed he would find a way to turn dirt into hold! Did he succeed? Read this delightful tale from Myanmar to find out.

So, what are waiting for. Celebrate this Father’s Day with us in our style. 

Happy reading! 

Be the first to comment.

---