September 30 is International Translation Day - a day that is very important to us at StoryWeaver. 

For children to become readers, they must have access to books in the languages they speak and understand. Yet, this is sorely lacking in several parts of the world — there are not enough books, in not enough languages for children to learn and practise reading. A UNESCO study states that 40% of the world does not have access to education in their mother tongue. 

In September 2015, Pratham Books set up StoryWeaver with the aim of addressing this scarcity of books for children. StoryWeaver was launched with 800 books in 24 languages. Today, just 6 years later, the platform offers over 38,000 books, and our language footprint has grown to 303 languages - 60% of these languages are indigenous.

In the coming days, we shall share more insights about the guiding principles that have helped us nurture an ecosystem to address the dearth of children’s books in mother tongue languages.

We want to say a big thank you to our wonderful translation community, our partners and collaborators that have helped us grow and learn on this journey to the 300 languages milestone on StoryWeaver. Here’s to more storybooks in more languages, so that more children around the world can experience the joy of reading!

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Ankit Bhuptani of VIDYA, writes about a recent StoryWeaver workshop he conducted with his colleagues in Dahod, Gujarat. 

I recently got an opportunity to facilitate a workshop on StoryWeaver with my colleagues Jayshree Murali  and  Sangeeta Gupta at Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir, Dahod, Gujarat on 16th July 2017. Our session was was part of larger 2 day workshop on ‘Language Learning’ conducted by my organization VIDYA. VIDYA is a not-for-profit working with children, adolescents and youth in the urban slum communities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. This is our 31st  year having been seeded in Delhi in the home of our Founder Rashmi Misra. We have a holistic approach to education with a focus on academics, life skills and digital empowerment.

The workshop started with an introduction to the StoryWeaver platform using a short video. After this, we explored the ways to find an ideal story for the class and read a bilingual story together followed by a session on how to translate  stories. This happened in small groups of 5 teachers each who logged-in on the platform and translated a story. Now was the time to create our own. But….. suddenly the power was gone!  And  we had to find our own ‘power'!

What fun it was to weave and spin a story based on the pictures which we had downloaded from very rich picture pitara of  StoryWeaver. The story was about  two children  Pinku and Pinky who go to a jungle in search of their cat  Biladi.  All the teachers were immersed and the child in them surfaced.

The whole workshop not only helped teachers to understand the platform of StoryWeaver but also helped to develop important teaching skills like group building  and critical thinking.  The teachers felt that integrating technology in the classroom  via stories  was  a brilliant idea.

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StoryWeaver invites educators and resource people from organisations to attend a workshop to be held in Bengaluru on 6th and 11th September in Koramangala. Participants will gain an understanding of how to use StoryWeaver with the children they work with. This includes how to:

• Browse, read & curate a reading list from over 9000 stories across 118 languages

• Download stories for offline reading

• Create a new story or a set of flashcards from an image bank of over 11000 illustrations

• Re-Level / Re-Mix a story to suit your child's needs
• Translate stories to a language of your choice 

And best of all, ALL of this is absolutely FREE!

To celebrate language diversity, we are planning to conduct the workshop session in English on the 6th and in Kannada on the 11th.  You are requested to give your preference for the date/language while signing up. However, just in case we are not able to attract enough participation for the Kannada workshop, we will be looking at doing a bilingual one. Please do make a note of this.

The workshop would cover the following:-

• A demonstration of StoryWeaver and the platform's key functionalities
• Examples of how educators are using StoryWeaver effectively in their classrooms
• Dedicated work time for participants to try their hands on StoryWeaver
• An opportunity to meet other educators and have interesting conversations

Participants at a recent StoryWeaver workshop.

If this excites you, REGISTER HERE to book your place in the workshop, latest by 3rd September, Monday.  

Please note that the seats are limited and we might not be able to accommodate more than 2-3 people per organization.  Confirmed participants will get a separate email confirming their participation and other logistical details. 

The workshop will be held between 10 a.m to 4.30 p.m and there is no fee to attend the workshop.

Feel free to reach out with any questions to Khyati at [email protected].

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