The Translate a Story 2021 Campaign

The Global Book Alliance (GBA) is pleased to announce the Translate a Story 2021 campaign, a book translation campaign that will produce materials to support beginning readers at home and in school. Translate a Story 2021 launched on April 23 (World Book Day), and will run until September 8 (International Literacy Day).

In addition to the GBA, other partners include the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Creative Commons, Learning Equality and Curious Learning as well as a growing list of organizations that have pledged time and resources to translate openly licensed digital children’s books into local languages. 

The Translation Sprint will result in materials in both spoken and signed languages. Translate a Story is working to provide comprehensive support for any organization wishing to produce sign language storybooks. If your organization is interested in creating sign language storybooks, contact GBA at comms@globalbookalliance.org and we will reach out to discuss.

The 2021 Translate a Story campaign has two main activities:

  1. A global translation effort, involving partners with volunteers or staff to translate books into their local languages, including sign language. Translation teams consist of at least one interpreter or linguistic expert to verify the translation and ensure quality of the final translated book.

  2. Country-specific efforts involving ministries of education and/or other government officials. Norad and the Global Digital Library team are working with UNESCO and ADEA to support governments to identify and translate books that are culturally relevant and suitable for use in schools. 

To learn more, or to sign up to participate, visit TranslateAStory.org

These images are released under CC BY SA 4.0.

Credit: Global Digital Library