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.Creating a Community of Super Readers
Posted by Remya Padmadas on June 20, 2017Communities Rising runs after-school programmes for children attending government primary schools in underserved rural villages in the Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu. The not-for-profit reaches out to over 1,600 students in ten villages in the area, with a focus on English, Tamil, math and computer education. In addition to this, they provide enrichment programmes in art, music and leadership skills. Two years ago, Communities Rising started a new reading programme for students. Betsy McCoy, founder and President of the not-for-profit, asked students “How many of you ever read books for pleasure?”
“Communities Rising was struggling to find affordably-priced, beginner reader books in English and Tamil that the children would enjoy reading,” shares Betsy.
This is a common problem faced by organisations working in education and literacy at the grassroots level: not enough books, in not enough languages, compounded by poor access and issues of affordability.
Most publishers cater to middle and upper income audiences in urban areas, often to the detriment of creating joyful books for underserved communities of children. StoryWeaver’s relationship with Communities Rising started earlier this year, when they attended a workshop and demonstration in Bangalore. Via the platform, Betsy and her team have access to a wealth of books in both English and Tamil, which they can download quickly and print to share with children. A choice of titles in a variety of genres, including books on STEM subjects, are available across reading levels to suit the needs of all students.
Communities Rising has downloaded 100 stories in English and Tamil, and is in the process of printing one set of all titles and distributing the same to each of its centres, thus reaching 360-400 students.
“We especially love the bilingual books printed in both Tamil and English that allow our students to read in both languages on the same page. These books are a tremendous help with comprehension – it’s like getting two books for the price of one!” says Betsy. “Plus, if a particular title is not available in Tamil, we can translate it on the platform and have it ready for the children to enjoy.”
Printing is often expensive and another roadblock so, Communities Rising experimented with a number of formats before narrowing down on one that worked best for them.
“We tried printing the books in two formats. One with single pages hole-punched and attached with rings, and the second with the pages stapled in the center. Durability is an issue so we printed samples on heavy, cardstock,” shares Betsy. The organisation believes that reading makes children learners for life, and encourages reading in a big way in their after-school programme. They have just opened their first community library in an area where there there are no other such spaces.
The organisation is running two other initiatives to great success. One is the ‘Daily 5,’ a reading programme developed by educators in the US; and the other is ‘CR Super Readers,’ a homegrown reading incentive programme. Both programmes are working wonders! Students are first taught how to pick ‘Good Fit Books’ that they can read comfortably. The books are then kept in a book basket which they share with a friend.
Each day the students have to read to themselves for 5 to 10 minutes. Other days they have to read to their partner. In this way they can help and learn from each other.
Students keep a list of all the books they read and have it checked by a teacher for comprehension. This forms the basis of the ‘Super Reader’ program.
“In addition to the book basket which contains books, we also give the children a ‘reading necklace.’ They get a bead for each book that their teacher certifies they have actually read. After reading 10 books, they get ‘Readers Are Leaders’ pencils, and after 20 books, they get pins that proclaim them ‘CR Super Readers’.”
“I’m happy to say that we are giving out many pencils,” says Betsy, who believes that the necklaces, reading pencils and Super Reader pins help build a sense of community and sense of belonging to Communities Rising, amongst the children.
“At the end of the year, the top readers from each center will travel to Chennai to visit Tara Books for a program there and the top reading center will have a book party!” she says. “All of our students are now reading everyday; story books, non-fiction books, biographies, all kinds of books. They are discovering the joy of reading! Without StoryWeaver, this remarkable change in our students’ reading habits would not have been possible,” shares Betsy.
“Last year, I told some of our kids, that I was looking forward to hearing complaints from their parents that they were spending too much time reading, instead of playing or helping at home. We aren’t quite there yet, but with access to so many stories now, I have no doubt those complaints aren’t far away,” says Betsy.
We look forward to hearing those complaints too!
Be the first to comment.A community comes together to safeguard their language
Posted by Amna Singh on October 01, 2018Beginning in 2014, the Adivasi community has mobilized themselves to save their language and culture. Over 8 workshops, Gondi speakers from all 7 states got together to create the first standard Gondi lexicon. In the 9th workshop, Gondi speakers met with researchers from Microsoft Research India to discuss how their language can be taken online. The consensus at the meeting was that before any work could start, there needed to be 100,000 lines of translation from Gondi to a mainstream language.
In the 10th and most recent workshop with Pratham Books' StoryWeaver team, over 20 Gondi speakers from 3 different states gathered together from September 18th to September 28th to translate children’s books from Hindi to Gondi. The purpose of the workshop was two-fold: creating a repository of children’s stories in Gondi which can be distributed in schools, and gathering enough data to build a machine translation tool.
Workshop participants translating children’s stories to Gondi
The truck that CGnet uses to travel and perform at Gondi-speaking villages
Kumari Shashila, a Gondi speaker from Orchha, Koilebeda, Kanker, who attended the Gondi translation workshop after meeting the yatra team
In the coming few months, we are planning to build on this effort and obtain funding to print and distribute these books in the villages that the yatra team travels to. We also plan to hold many more such workshops to reach the magical figure of 100,000 lines. If you would like to help or contribute to this effort, you can email [email protected]