The Rosetta Foundation and StoryWeaver
Posted by Remya Padmadas on February 20, 2017
The Rosetta Foundation was launched on September 21, 2009, at the Action for Global Information Sharing (AGIS) ’09 Conference in Limerick, Ireland, by the President of the University of Limerick, Professor Don Barry. Its primary purpose is to make information available to individuals all over the world irrespective of their social status, linguistic or cultural background, and geographical location. The organisation's name is based on the Rosetta Stone. In 196 BC, the text of the Rosetta Stone was carved in Egyptian and Greek using three scripts - Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. The Rosetta Stone was written in these scripts to make sure that everyone in the world at the time could understand it. The Stone was discovered in 1799 in a small Egyptian village called Rosetta, which gave the stone its name. We spoke to Stefania Tringali, Production Coordinator about the foundation's work work and their collaboration with StoryWeaver.
What is your mission?
We work to relieve poverty, support healthcare, develop education and promote justice through equal access to information and knowledge across the languages of the world. Like the Rosetta Stone, the aim of The Rosetta Foundation is to provide equal access to information to as many people as possible.
Why is translation / making the world more open and inclusive so important?
We believe access to information in your own language is a fundamental and universal human right – one that The Rosetta Foundation is committed to preserve and protect.The multilingual information we facilitate makes a real difference in people’s lives. But the reality is that nearly three-quarters of the world’s population still has no access to vital information in their own language. The Rosetta Foundation will continue working hard on their behalf in 2017 and beyond, because access to information in your own language is a fundamental human right.
How are StoryWeaver and The Rosetta Foundation's mission and purpose aligned?
StoryWeaver and The Rosetta Foundation have worked together on six translation projects for a children’s book series into seven languages. We believe that we have a lot in common in our mission and vision. Both of our organisations work for equal access to the intellectual resources and believe that languages shouldn’t be an obstacle in this process. It was a great pleasure for us to work together and cooperate for the “Freedom to Read” campaign: it was a great chance for our volunteers to use their skills to promote equality and empower children all over the world.
The Rosetta Foundation logo is by Source, fair use: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27129018)
Be the first to comment.StoryWeaver Community Spotlight: Professor Lea Shaver explains Book Hunger and the steps we can take to mitigate this crisis
Posted by Pallavi Kamath on September 01, 2020This is the 1st post in a two-part series featuring the work of Prof. Lea Shaver, the world's leading expert on book hunger and the right to read. She is tenured at Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law, where she teaches copyright law and human rights law. Her research on intellectual property and distributive justice has shaped international law at the United Nations. She is a long-time advocate of StoryWeaver and its open-licensing philosophy.
Purvi Shah, Director - StoryWeaver says: “We were introduced to Lea’s work way back in 2014, through a research paper she had authored. The paper's focus was on copyright, how it promotes social inequality and can be a barrier to access. We reached out to her and walked her through Pratham Books’ open license philosophy, and how it helps address issues of access and gives agency to stakeholders to create content they need and can use. This led to our story being extensively referenced in her latest book Ending Book Hunger. A big thank you to Lea for raising awareness about and sharing solutions to these challenges of access and literacy.”
Read this piece by Professor Shaver, to understand the pressing issue of ‘book hunger’ and the steps we can take to mitigate this crisis.
Worldwide, one billion children have virtually no reading material. Over the long term, book hunger is almost as dangerous as the regular kind.
Early and consistent access to reading material is essential to literacy skills. And fluent literacy is key to academic success and escape from poverty.
An extensive body of research demonstrates that a book-rich environment is critical to a child’s educational achievement and future income. The “book effect” has been demonstrated in countries both rich and poor, communist and capitalist, and across diverse cultures. Sociologists Mariah Evans, Jonathan Kelley, and Joanna Sikora reviewed studies on the relationship between books and life outcomes from forty-two countries. They found that even the smallest of home book collections benefit children, and these benefits increase with the size of the collection. Growing up in a home with at least two hundred books promotes a child’s future success more powerfully than having parents with college degrees. This rigorous body of research proves what those of us who grew up with books already know.
Children who read regularly for pleasure become fluent readers, take joy in learning, and perform well in school.
Books at home matter so much, because that's where children are most of the time.
Teachers all over the world are scrambling to figure out how to continue to support literacy while schools are closed. The most important step is to get books to every child. Simply providing books makes a big difference.
The viral pandemic has created a book crisis. And that should concern us greatly, because access to books is the number one determinant of educational achievement and future income.
So, how do we get books to students... fast... in both digital and paper formats?
There are several solutions:
- DIGITAL: Smartphones connect 4.7 billion people to the Internet. Virtual libraries can put a bookshelf in every pocket.
- LICENSING: Speeding up permissions helped libraries and schools better serve readers with blindness and other print disabilities.
- FAIR USE: Libraries and book charities can invoke existing legal flexibility to translate children's books into underserved languages.
- LEGAL REFORM: Lawmakers can legalize translations into disadvantaged languages, without impacting publishing income.
- OPEN BOOKS: Creative Commons licenses helped one nonprofit (Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver) go from producing a few dozen new books each year, to producing thousands.
- VOLUNTEERS: One in ten Icelanders will publish a book. It's not because they hope to get rich.
- SCALING UP: We can end childhood book hunger by 2030, but only through a strategy of mass translation, free eBooks, and cheap copies.
Book hunger is a solvable problem. If this issue matters to you, I'm excited to present 'Ending Book Hunger'. Discover innovative non-profit strategies to bring books within reach of every child, and what you can do to help. Visit: ‘Ending Book Hunger’ to learn more.
Illustration by Shrujana Shridhar, for बेटियाँ भी चाहें आज़ादी written by Kamla Bhasin, published by Pratham Books
Rooted in Our Stories!
Posted by Sherein Bansal on July 08, 2016Nature’s shining green umbrellas, those green canopies with sprinkles of fragrant flowers and fruits, TREES are such magnificent things. Though rooted to the spot, just one of them can liven up an entire desolate road. Swing from them, play and sleep under them or just sit and study them, trees will always make time and space for you. Nature seems to be giving trees special attention these days...so we should too, right? Here are a few that we picked from our flowering array of stories available in varied languages.
A Walk Among Trees written and illustrated by Nimret Handa
The king’s head gardener is panicked and scolding all his helpers! What could this royal head gardener have to worry about? Take a fun stroll through the King’s gardens and his beloved trees and find out who the king of fruits is... and why. We bet all these tree illustrations will make you fruit-hungry immediately! This story has been translated in Hindi, Kannada and Telegu.
Up World, Down World by Padmaparna Ghosh, Illustrated by Sunaina Coelho
We often have these invisible boundaries around us in which we like to keep our worlds all sewn up and intact. Imagine what can happen if we pull some threads loose and allow Our World to spill out into the one we have been told not to venture into, and let some of the Other World seep into our lives? Be brave! And read this remarkable and beautifully-illustrated story of how a little girl, Fatima, found an unlikely friend in Gopa, a dormouse! Wonderful things happen when two worlds meet. This gem is translated in 9 languages including Hindi and Bengali.
Let’s Go Seed Collecting! by Neha Sumitran, Illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
Don’t you just love it when knowledge makes its way to you effortlessly? A great story with fascinating illustrations, this will help kids observe and learn from the tiniest detail of everyday landscapes, appreciate nature in its full glory, learn to be curious, and to seize the opportunity to spend time with a talking tree! Konkani and Marathi are two of the 10 languages in which this story is available in. Enjoy!
Jadav and the Tree-Place written and illustrated by Vinayak Varma
Ever heard of Jadav "Molai" Payeng? He has been planting trees for three decades now. This heart-warming story is dedicated to the undying spirit of a man who was so moved by the plight of snakes dying from heat that he decided to plant some bamboos to give them some shade. What this simple idea grew into... is incredible and an inspiration. Here’s another role model for your kids. We have this story in 11 languages including Odia and Tamil.
We love to see readers like you pitching in! Here’s a pick of three Community Stories where trees branch out in some form or the other:
Deepa’s Resolution by Usha Ayyar
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Nelson Henderson’s words are even more relevant now! Read this simple story to your kids and see what they take from it.
Asha Gives up a Bad Habit by Geetha Ravi
Here’s an innovative way to make your child quit that bad, bad habit that you’ve been trying so, so hard to get rid of. Asha learnt two things in this story – How to give up a bad habit (Let’s face it, we all can use some help on that front), and to appreciate the impact trees have on us every minute. This story’s clearly a two-pronged winner.
This will remind you of all the innocent times as a kid when you thought that if you sow a seed, its plant would start growing tall the very next day! Nayana and Zia love mangoes, so they decide to plant a mango tree. What they didn’t take into account was all the friendly elements that will come together to help out the little seed. A Malayalam translation of this story is available here!
Do you have a favourite tree story? Tell us what it is in the comments section below, on Twitter or Facebook!
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