At Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, we believe that every child deserves to have joyful reading material in her mother tongue. Join us as we celebrate International Mother Language Day - February 21, 2020!

How to participate:

Help us spread the joy of reading in your mother tongue, by hosting story reading sessions for children in your community! The reading session can be held in any language of your choice. We have books available in 200+ languages that you can read from, or download for free from www.storyweaver.org.in.

Sounds exciting? Register now and help us bring more books, in more languages, to more children! All you have to do is fill up a form, and we'll send you a free reading kit*, help you choose the books for the reading session and give you a shout-out on our social media channels! You can conduct the reading sessions anywhere - at home, in your library, at school - and on any day from February 14 - 23, 2020 (this includes 2 weekends!).

*UPDATED: Registrations to receive a hard copy of the kit end on February 10, but if you miss the deadline, we’ll be happy to mail you an e-copy!

Note:

• For logistical reasons, we will not be able to send the reading kit to locations outside India, but we will share an e-copy instead.

• There are a limited number of printed kits available, so if we run out of kits by the time you register, we will send you an e-copy.

• If you have any queries, please mail [email protected] BEFORE you fill in the form.

Sign up here (for individuals) or here (for organisations).

Join our Facebook group! Keep up with the latest news, and get in touch with others conducting story reading sessions in your community!: https://bit.ly/2UrZnDo

Join our Facebook event! If you are planning to conduct a story reading session, let us know by joining our Facebook event here: https://bit.ly/31tzhBr

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Frequently asked questions:

1. Do I have to find the venue?

Yes. Identify places where you can conduct this event in your city – a government school, an NGO, a library, a bookstore, a park, a train, your building… any place where children visit. Approach the organisation and explain the concept to them. Most of them will be happy to host you.

2. How do I choose a storybook for the reading session?

You can read aloud a storybook in a language of your choice. We have books available in 200+ languages that you can read from, or download for free from www.storyweaver.org.in!

3. Will you help me choose a storybook for the reading session?

We would love to! Just fill up the form, and we shall send you our storybook recommendations.

4. This is the first time I am conducting an event. How should I prepare for it?

Read the book a few times. If you are reading to a younger age group, see how you can tell the story without actually reading from the book (to retain their attention). Think of activities to engage the children after the storytelling. Alternatively, read a few more storybooks around the same theme.

5. Can I conduct multiple reading sessions?

Oh, yes, you can! The aim is to reach as many kids as possible. You could also conduct reading sessions for multiple languages - for example: Hindi for Session 1, Marathi for Session 2 and so on.

6. I really want to conduct a session but I am not free on International Mother Language Day, February 21? What should I do?

No problem! You can still conduct it on a day close to the chosen date, anytime between February 15 to 23, 2020 - this includes 2 weekends!

7. Will the reading kit be sent for free or will I have to pay for it?

The reading kit will be sent to you for free (printed kits will be shared until stocks last, after which we will send you an e-copy).

8. Should I document the event?

We would love for all our participants to send us some documentation about the event conducted by them. You can send us videos, pictures, a write-up – just share with us the “real impact” you’ve helped make. Feel free to tag us on social media as well! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

This International International Mother Language Day, let us celebrate the joy of reading in your mother tongue. Sign up now! If you are an individual, sign up here. If you are an organisation, please sign up here. Happy reading! 

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Today is World Storytelling Day, which means it is time for our annual storytelling contest: Retell, Remix, Rejoice - this time, with a twist! This year’s edition of Retell, Remix, Rejoice will focus on translating some wonderful storybooks on StoryWeaver, and adding to the pool of multilingual children’s literature.

Translate storybooks and share the joy of reading in 10 languages

At StoryWeaver, we believe that every child deserves joyful storybooks in her own language. In order to work towards this, Retell, Remix, Rejoice 2020 will nurture the translator community, to find and encourage translation talent in 10 languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Gondi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Vietnamese.

If you are fluent in one or more of these languages, just fill in the participation form (link below), and we shall assign you a storybook. All you have to do is translate the book into the shortlisted language and submit it!

This year’s prize

The winner(s) will have a one-on-one mentoring and feedback session with an editorial expert. The winner(s) will also receive a print copy of the translated book (only for participants based in India), and the winning translation will be published and highlighted as a Recommended title on StoryWeaver.

How to enter

Enter the Retell, Remix, Rejoice 2020 contest here: https://bit.ly/RRR_Contest

Guidelines for submission

1. The contest will run from March 20, 2020 to May 20, 2020

2. All translations submitted must be your own work.

3. Translations must be in Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Gondi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, or Vietnamese.

4. Participants must be over the age of 18 to participate.

5. By submitting your work to Retell, Remix and Rejoice 2020, you are agreeing to a CC-BY 4.0 license being applied to it. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. To know more about CC-BY 4.0, click here.

6. Terms and conditions apply. All final decisions rest with Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver. For more read here.  

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We are delighted to share that StoryWeaver has been selected by the Qatar Foundation’s flagship education initiative, WISE, as a finalist for the 2020 WISE Awards. Each year, the WISE Awards recognize and promote innovative and impactful projects from around the world that are addressing today’s most pressing global educational challengEs.

The 15 WISE Awards finalists come from 10 countries and were selected from a pool of 625 submissions evaluated according to strict criteria. Selected projects needed to be established, innovative educational projects that have already demonstrated a transformative impact on individuals, communities, and society in their context. They also needed to be financially stable, have a clear development plan, and be scalable and replicable.

StoryWeaver is working towards addressing the global book gap by providing open and free access to quality storybooks in multiple languages to promote reading acquisition among children. At the platform’s core, is a repository of high-quality, openly licensed, multilingual storybooks from Pratham Books and other reputed publishers. While the platform is digital, the books are available in multiple formats to overcome the issue of digital access and can be read online, offline, or downloaded and printed. StoryWeaver has also embedded simple tools on the platform that allow users to further translate and version the books for localized requirements.

The StoryWeaver Model: Working towards bridging the book gap

This has led to a massive increase of over 2200% in the availability of local language books. StoryWeaver was launched in 2015 with 800 storybooks in 24 languages. Today it provides access to more than 20,000 books in 238 languages, to readers from all around the world.

Supporting and scaling the creation of books for children in diverse languages  (58% of the languages featured on the platform are indigenous)

Providing access to diverse and inclusive storybooks for children

Suzanne Singh, Chairperson of Pratham Books, says: "StoryWeaver's vision is to massively scale the creation and distribution of reading resources for children in mother tongue languages. Our endeavor is to address the global scarcity of books for children and arm every child with the power of knowledge and opportunity. By providing access to thousands of storybooks, the platform has enabled educators to make classrooms more engaging, libraries more diverse and most importantly, make learning fun for children. With StoryWeaver, we have opened up a new pathway to nurture a generation of readers.”

StoryWeaver has seen a huge global uptick in usage as a result of children being at home due to forced school closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As education systems are adapting to remote learning as a solution during this time, StoryWeaver is providing open access to a large repository of quality content that is being used widely. 

Empowering educators with curated, high-quality open access resources

Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, says: “Our world is experiencing a crisis that is affecting all facets of our lives. Education is no exception, and indeed the need for innovation is all the more urgent because of the systemic shortcomings that the crisis has exposed. In this context, the work celebrated by the WISE Awards is critically important. Each of the 2020 WISE Awards finalists has built an effective, tested solution to a global educational challenge. Whether ensuring access to fundamental early childhood education or imparting valuable entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, each project is already transforming lives, and provides an inspirational model for others to emulate. As we look forward to recognising this year’s WISE Awards winners it is imperative that policymakers and civil society leaders around the world seriously address the need to bring some of these innovations to scale.”

With users from over 150 countries, StoryWeaver is harnessing the power of open licences, collaboration, and technology to create a societal platform that is providing open access to thousands of  books in local languages to nurture the next generation of readers and learners. This scale would not have been possible without the power of collaboration: Publishers who have open-licensed their content at scale. Linguists and translators who have created and translated content into new languages. Educators in every nook and corner of the world who have welcomed StoryWeaver into their classrooms and the hearts of their students. 

We are grateful to our wonderful network for helping us share the joy of reading in hundreds of languages, and to WISE for this recognition.

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Learn more about the 2020 WISE Awards and other finalists at http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-awards

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below! You can also reach out to us through our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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