COVID-19 Response: Global Book Alliance Co-organizes Global Sprint to Translate Children’s Storybooks – TranslateAStory.org

Due to the spread of COVID-19, more than 1.5 billion children and youth are out of school as of April 10, 2020. Many lack access to reading materials in a language they understand.

In response, the Global Book Alliance is collaborating with Norway, UNESCO, UNHCR, ADEA, Verizon, Learning Equality and Creative Commons to set up a “translation sprint” to support volunteers to translate children’s reading books into as many local languages from around the globe as possible from April 8th - May 29th, 2020.

Translation sprint volunteers will translate children’s storybooks from English into any other language that they know, with a focus on underserved, local and regional languages since those who use these languages are likely to face a greater shortage of appropriate educational materials at home. 

The Global Digital Library will participate alongside other platforms that provide open educational resources both online including: Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read, African Storybook. Volunteers may choose to translate materials for any or all of these providers, and all translated works will become available on the offline educational application Kolibri.

Once translated, the digital books will undergo a quality assurance process, after which the titles will become publicly available. Books will be available for on and offline use as well as for printing.

The GBA is calling for those who are bilingual or multilingual to spread the word and join the effort at TranslateAStory.org

Sign up and help reduce the impact on COVID-19 on learning by providing materials in underserved languages.

Global Book Alliance COVID-19 Response

• We, the members of the Global Book Alliance, welcome the establishment of a COVID-19 education coalition by UNESCO.

• We believe this coalition has a unique opportunity to ensure continuity around children’s acquisition and practice of reading skills. We also want to help ensure that responses today help to build resilience and access to reading material in case of future crises.

• As education systems everywhere are being disrupted at an unprecedented level, children will need to continue learning to read and reading to learn in their home settings. 

• The Global Book Alliance, through its flagship initiative the Global Digital Library (GDL), managed by the Government of Norway through Norad, can contribute by facilitating better and easier access to openly-licensed, free, high-quality reading resources, in languages children use and understand. Reading resources should be available, accessible, appropriate, free/affordable, and actively used at all times. 

•  In response to the current pandemic, Norad and the GBA will redirect current resources to fast-track the creation of a seamless cross-platform search function that will allow users to access quality open educational resources for reading from multiple source sites. 

• By summer, 2020, the cross-platform search will cover resources in at least 150 languages. The number of languages is planned to expand to more than 250 in the longer term.

• In accelerating this work, Norad and the GBA will emphasize and leverage equitable pathways for reaching all children, including those with disabilities, at scale with reading resources, including through distribution partnerships with mobile operators and technology companies and through books being audio recorded, subtitled with sign languages, or potentially read aloud on radio.  

•  The mission of UNESCO's COVID-19 education coalition is important. The GBA looks forward to helping by supporting the goal that all learners have access to free and openly licensed high-quality reading material in languages they use and understand at this critical time.