Written by Amna Singh

StoryWeaver believes that every child deserves to have access to joyful reading material in her mother tongue. In November 2018, we opened applications to educators, translators, literacy organisations, and everyone else working with children to promote reading -- in our quest for partners to help build a 100 local language libraries of children’s books in underserved languages by International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2019 .

We were seeking partners with relevance of work and expertise in language and translations, and above all, a shared vision of equity in access for all. We got over 225 applications from all over the globe – each application inspiring us with their exemplar work in the field of literacy and language for the under-represented communities.

Based on our guidelines, relevance of work and a rigorous evaluation, we have selected 16 organisations and 28 individual language champions to partner with us to build these digital local libraries.

Selected Organisations: Target Languages

1. Azad India Foundation: Surjapuri

2. BookDash: 11 official South African languages

3. SNS Foundation: Marwari

4. CODE- Ethiopia: Amharic, Afaan Oromoo

5. African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA): Igbo, Hausa, Fante, Ewe, Yoruba, Kikiyu, Luganda and Swahili

6. Global Forum 4 Literacy: Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Tswana and Arabic

7. Suchana Uttor Chandipur Community Society: Santali, Kora, Bilinguals

8. Aripana Foundation: Maithili

9. Little Readers' Nook: Tulu, Kutchi, Marwari …

10. Unnati Institute for Social and Educational Change: Korku

11. North East Educational Trust: Assamese, Bodo

12. Brightstart Pre Primary school and Learning Centre : Marwari

13. Libreo.ph: Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Tausug/Maranao and Ilokano

14. Darakht-e Danesh Library: Pashto

15. Every English: Brazilian Portuguese

16. REHMA: English-Urdu bilinguals

The selected language champions will help build local libraries across 24 languages.

Target Languages: Selected Language Champions:

1. Amharic: Kaleab

2. Bambara: Kirsty Paxton

3. Basa Jawa (Javanese): Maharani Aulia

4. Bundelkhandi: Ankit Dwivedi, Krishna Murary Upadhyay

5. Chinyanja: Agnes Nankhoma Singine Nyendwa

6. Dari: Aisha

7. Filipino: Kaye

8. Garhwali: Shweta Rawat

9. GSB Konkani: Sujith Kamath

10. Kirundi: Melchiade Ntibazonkiza, Adolphe Ndagijimana

11. Kui: Shruti

12. Kumaoni: Somya Budhori , Richa Pathak Pant,

13. Kuvi/Jatapu: Markose K C

14. Malay: David Loiuson

15. Malvani: Rupali Bodekar

16. Malvi: Omprakash Kshatriya

17. Ndebele: Ntando Titus Ntaka

18. Pawari: Amit Dudave

19. Pashto: Nighat Kamdar

20. Sanskrit: Meenakshi Sundaram K B, Priya Bhakthan

21. Serbian: Ana Jovic

22. Sindhi (Devanagari Script): Bharti

23. Sindhi (Arabic Script): Zaib-un-Nisa

24. Vietnamese: Nguyen Dac Thai Hang

 

Thank you for your initiative, we will get in touch with all selected partners for the next steps.

And a BIG thank you to everyone who applied. StoryWeaver is truly a result of your constant support, and contributions. We will do our best to reach out to you and explore alternate ways to collaborate. Thank you, again, and happy holidays!

 

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This International Mother Language Day, to celebrate the beauty of multilingualism and linguistic diversity, our intern Rahel put together a  list of stories written in the languages of the world. These stories are every bit as beautiful as the languages they’re written in and are accompanied by absolutely gorgeous illustrations.  

Gul in Space by Richa Jha and Lavanya Karthik

In this poem, join Gul on her birthday as she goes to outer space. In a dream, she floats in the space station, gets jalebi and samosa in her hair, and is wished by the moon and the stars.

एकशे सदतिसावा पाय (The Hundred and Thirty-Seventh Leg) by Madhuri Purandare

When the millipede breaks one of her hundreds of legs, neither the sparrow, nor the butterfly, nor any of the other animals want to help her. The only animal willing to help is the spider. But for the spider to wrap her leg in his silk thread, she needs to teach the spider how to count beyond eight.

 ಮೊಲ ಮತ್ತು ಆಮೆ   (The Hare and the Tortoise. Again!) by Venkatramana Gowda and Padmanabh

Remember the famous race between the hare and the tortoise? The story that coined the phrase “slow and steady wins the race”? Now put a twist on that. A twist that requires the animals to work together in order to deliver a message from their king to the neighbouring king, in a day. In this story, follow the hare and the tortoise in their race against time instead of each other.

ଏଣ୍ଟେଜ ସେଂକଏ ଆଉ କୁଲାବ୍‌ ସୁମୁସିଞ୍ଜ୍‍ /କୁକୁଡ଼ା ଏବଂ ବେଲ ଗଛ (The Clever Chicken/चतुर चूज़ा) by Juanga Writer’s Group and Sugrib Kumar Juanga

In this beautifully illustrated, bilingual book, a little chicken is being relentlessly hunted by a hungry jackal. Can the chicken successfully outwit the jackal in his endeavour to eat it and escape his jaws once and for all?

ముక్కు విరిగిన రామచిలుక (The Parrot with the Broken Beak) by Shahid Anwar and Shailja Jain Chougule, translated by Nagaraju Nichenametla

Watch Kansi, a budding artist, as she takes her father’s favourite pen and draws a blue parrot on the wall, breaking the nib of the pen in the process. After she faces an angry father, she goes to sleep to meet an angry, blue parrot with a broken beak in her dream who teaches her wrong from right. This colourful story is perfect for children.

 بادشاہی پارک (Badshahi Park) by Shahid Anwar and Tapas Guha

When Ashhar laughs at Zulfi for being afraid of the king’s grave, Zulfi dares him to go in there, by the light of the full moon, and hammer a nail into the head of the forbidden grave.

 துப்பறியும் துரை (Kaushik, The Kind Detective) by N. Chokkan and Megha Vishwanath

Armed with a brand new torch and magnifying glass, Kaushik goes exploring the forest like a true detective. When he examines a group of mushrooms, he discovers Lalitha, a tiny girl, sitting under the mushrooms.

 ਬਾਣੀ (Bani) by Herminder Ohri and Taposhi Ghoshal, translated by Narinder Singh

Join Bani and her new friends as they float through mushroom town, eating laddoos and chips from mushrooms and drinking from streams of lemonade, orange, and mango juice. A story clearly filled with imagination and perfect for children.

 

 सबरंग (Colourful) by Kamla Bakaya and Audrey Agnier

A book of poetry coupled with gorgeous illustrations, सबरंग is a collection of four poems sure to make you fall in love.

We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we do!

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StoryWeaver is a digital repository of openly-licensed, multilingual children's stories. A Pratham Books' initiative, StoryWeaver allows its users to read, create and translate stories into many, many Indian and international languages in the hope that children across the world can read quality stories in languages of their choice.

As the stories on StoryWeaver are travelling further, we need more hands on board! Currently, we're looking for a full-time, Assistant Editor to join our Digital Team in Bangalore.

                                               

Job description

StoryWeaver is looking for a creative person to take on the work of an assistant editor. The position involves, editing chosen manuscripts, maintaining quality on the platform and working with the team to improve StoryWeaver. The position requires an interest in children’s literature and digital publishing.

Required Skill-set

• Excellent communication skills in English

• Ability to copy-edit

• Ability to work with graphic designer to adapt content for StoryWeaver

• Work with the StoryWeaver team to maintain quality on the platform

• Ability to tag stories and images before uploading on StoryWeaver

• Coordinate with the administrative team for documentation, records and payments

• Work with the team to identify opportunities to bring more stories onto StoryWeaver

• Ability to maintain and document day-to-day editorial assignments

• Ability to multitask and be team player

• Ability to meet tight deadlines

Desirable

• Degree in Literature/Journalism/Mass Communication/Media /Language

• Ability to visualise and engage creatively with the design team

Experience

At least 3-4 years in an editorial position would be good. Preference will be given to candidates who have worked in children's publishing or with children.

Location

This is a full time position,in our Bengaluru office.

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.  Please send your resume and sample of work to [email protected] with Assistant Editor - StoryWeaver in the subject line of the email.

 

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