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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This position is now closed

Pratham Books (www.prathambooks.org) 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.

We are looking for a Social Media Manager for Storyweaver

The role involves ddeveloping and implementing strategic engagement initiatives by building and sustaining relationships with multiple stakeholders, and advocating the brand across a variety of social networks

(Postmen in the midst of piles of letters,  Illustration by Bindia Thapar from 'City of Stories' by Rukmini Banerji)

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for all social media for StoryWeaver handles.
• Incorporating online tools and networking to create relationships and ultimately build the company’s brand, both online and off.
• Distributing the brand’s content across a variety of different social networks.
• Identifying and building lasting relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders from non-profits, community groups, authors, illustrators, publishers, children, parents, etc.
• Using Analytics and other measurement tools to provide reports on metrics, and continually find ways to improve on those metrics through testing and new initiatives.

Required skills

• 2-3 years of experience in social media management.
• Familiar with latest technology, trends and analytics in Social Media.

Nice to have but not mandatory:

• Previous experience in Sales/ Marketing/ Public Relations

Location: 

This is a full-time position and is based out of Bangalore

Compensation: 

Salary will be commensurate with qualification and experience.

Write to us:

Email your resume with Social Media Manager-StoryWeaver in the subject line to [email protected]

 

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“Linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40 per cent of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.” - UNESCO International Mother Language Day website

Since 2000, the United Nations has observed February 21 as International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. This year, StoryWeaver marks the occasion by opening a gateway to digital libraries in 100 languages for children across the world and thereby addressing the scarcity of books for children in their own languages. 

To achieve the milestone of 100 languages, StoryWeaver has collaborated with a global network of organisations and individuals who are helping create this vast resource of children’s storybooks, as part of its ‘Freedom to Read’ campaign. 

                                                                  

Our partners encompass national and international organisations, as well as language champions who share our passion for creating reading resources for children in their mother tongue languages. Partners like Azad India Foundation, AfLIA (African Library Information Associations and Institutions), Darakht-e Danesh Library, Little Readers' Nook, North East Educational Trust, REHMA, Right To Play, SNS Foundation, Suchana, Unnati Institute for Social and Educational Change and language champions like Agnes N.S. Nyendwa, Amit Dudave, Ana Jovic, Ankit Dwivedi, Kaye Suscang, Maharani Aulia and BE Priyanti, Nguyen Dac Thai Hang, Priya Bhakthan. The languages are varied - from mainstream languages like Afrikaans, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, tribal languages like Gondi, Korku, Kora and Santali, endangered languages like Occitan to indigenous languages like Chatino, Mixe and Triqui and underserved languages like Assamese, Basa Jawa, Basa Sunda, Bhojpuri, Bundelkhandi, Igbo, Marwari, Sindhi and Surjapuri,

Collaboration has been the cornerstone of the StoryWeaver community, and the high quality of the translations - endured by a rigorous system of peer review - stands testament to the commitment of every contributor to "Freedom to Read".

These partners will take these digital reading resources even further - to serve children around the world, and help them read in their mother tongue languages. AfLIA (African Library Information Associations and Institutions) will roll out their continent-wide reading promotion ‘Read Africa Read’ with the same storybook titles in different languages across Africa. The Ghana Library Authority has already downloaded a book translated into Ewe in the e-readers in the Library and read it aloud to children on the World Read Aloud Day. The SNS Foundation in Rajasthan is working towards building a hyperlocal library of 100 Marwari books which will be used in 1,500 schools in Rajasthan. 

The troubling statistic of 40% of the global population not having access to education in a language they speak or understand translates to over 2 billion people who would benefit from having books in their mother tongues. 

“Through StoryWeaver, increasing access to quality reading resources for children has been made possible like none other. We are also grateful to collaborate with like-minded partners whose primary mission -- like ours -- is to get every child to read,” shares Suzanne Singh, Chairperson, Pratham Books.

Click here to take a look at a short video on the Freedomto Read journey. 

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