Joeanna Rebello writes about how free libraries are making readers of children in small towns and villages for The Times of India. She also mentions StoryWeaver and our Freedom to Read campaign, and highlights the work being done by our outreach partner the Agastya International Foundation and community member Tenzin Dhargyal.
"For Subramanya Shastri, project manager at Agastya International Foundation which has established libraries in 70 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the goal is to get children to first read and write fluently in their mother tongue before progressing to other languages. "Each library has 150 to 200 books for grades three to ten, in three to four languages based on the local demographic," says Shastri. Unfortunately, books written in regional languages are limited, and translations (from dominant languages) are few he observes.
It's a problem that seems to have found one solution at least. Last September on World Literacy Day, Pratham Books, the not-for-profit children's publisher, launched an open-source online platform making available 800 stories in 24 languages, including 20 STEM titles.
The platform, Story Weaver, provides tools to enable readers to translate stories in different languages and scripts, and even rewrite available stories for higher or lower reading levels. It now has over 2,000 stories in 51 languages including Tibetan, Sanskrit, Banjara and Gondi. Their most recent campaign, Freedom to Read, launched this World Literacy Day on September 8, Pratham Books pledges to add 15 new languages to the list.
A few months ago, Tenzin Dhargyal, an English teacher at the Tibetan Children's Village School in Suja, Himachal Pradesh, started translating Story Weaver's works in Tibetan. "Most of the books donated to us are in English," he says. To encourage reading in their mother tongue, and supplement the stock of 33 books he and his colleagues have translated on Story Weaver, Dhargyal plans to assign older school children with 'translation' homework."
You can read the rest of the article here.
Be the first to comment.Pratham Books is looking for a dynamic Tamil Language editor, having full command over written, spoken and grammatically correct Tamil language and expertise in the translation process. The person needs to have a live connect with Tamil language and literature. The person will be responsible for anchoring the process of book development from translation of the manuscript in Tamil language to all the steps, which are needed to get the final books. The person will lead an outsourced team of translators, reviewers and proof readers, will work with the language and design team and will be responsible for the timely execution of all the processes involved.
This is a job that requires excellent English- Tamil translation ability, language skills, attention to detail. It also requires an interest in children’s literature and a creative understanding of child-friendly language. Clear communication and multitasking skills are a must.
Key Responsibilities
Send out the original English scripts for Tamil translations. Give inputs to the translator, see if the review is needed and get the copy proof read. Sign off the final ready to print Tamil PDF.
Build a system to put the translation and correction processes in place.
Track the workflow, observe the timelines, identify the bottleneck and communicate.
Build a strong team of English- Tamil translators, reviewers and proof readers.
Ensure the quality of translated work
Keep in touch with the new trends and challenges in translation.
Identify language experts in Tamil and send some of the translations for quality check.
Qualifications:
Preferably a degree, in Literature/Journalism/Mass Communication/Media /Language (Tamil)
Experience of working in an editorial position in a publishing house and should have hands-on experience in translation, review, proofreading and production related processes.
Excellent communication skills in Tamil and English.
Sharp eyes to check copy
Ability to multi-task and be a team player
Good technology skills
Passion for children’s literature
Nice to have but not mandatory: Experience in working with children’s literature
Location: Position is based out of Bangalore
Salary: Will commensurate with experience. We are looking for a passionate individual who wants to be part of a team that is creating a new model in multilingual publishing to address the scarcity of books for children in need
Write to us: Email your resume with Language editor, Tamil in the subject line to [email protected].
Be the first to comment.We, at Pratham Books, have had an amazing journey over the past 18 months since the launch of StoryWeaver, when we created a gateway to thousands of open access stories in mother tongue languages for children. The interactive nature of the platform has allowed users not just to read the stories but also translate, version, and download and print the stories for use.
We are now poised to take the next leap, thanks to Google.org, whose grant makes it possible for us to scale up StoryWeaver to provide more stories in more languages to children all over the world. Access to learning and information is part of Google’s core values and the organization has announced a $8.4M commitment to help scale four groundbreaking education nonprofits working in India to make a quality education a reality.
StoryWeaver has enabled access to a staggering 3000 stories in 67 languages in the past 18 months. These stories ae being reimagined and translated for the enjoyment of children of all ages, and their digital format allows them to reach the remotest of areas, and the least-served children. We have been overwhelmed by the response of our wonderful community that has contributed their time and talent to create, translate and version the stories and take them to more children. Imagine our delight when we discovered that it also spoke for unrepresented languages that are the mother tongue languages of some of the most disadvantaged children. From minority languages like Tibetan and Konkani, to tribal languages like Kora and Santali and endangered languages like Kurdish, StoryWeaver is a rich source of children’s storybooks, which, as we know, are an essential pathway to literacy.
Suchana, based in Birbhum, West Bengal, has been working to improve the lives of the large Adivasi tribal community in that region by implementing education and health programmes. One of the challenges faced by them was that while children spoke Kora and Santali at home, learning materials were only available in Bangla, which is the dominant language of that region. Even though, the indigenous Adivasi languages of Kora and Santali are the first languages of the people of the region, there was a dearth of original learning material. This changed dramatically when Suchana began to use the StoryWeaver platform for translation. In a year and a half, almost 70 new stories in Kora and Santali have been translated and published on the platform. Even as you read this, 10,000 copies of books in these languages are being printed for use in their school programmes.
The grant from Google.org will provide a big boost to our work with StoryWeaver, propelling it to the next level of reach and influence. It will encourage the generation of thousands of new, engaging stories to be distributed even more widely, and read and enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of children across the globe.
With this, we will take a big step forward in fulfilling our mission of ‘a book in every child’s hand’.
Be the first to comment.