African Storybook (ASb) is a multilingual literacy project that works with educators and authors to create and publish openly licensed storybooks for early reading in African languages, making it a Digital Public Good (DPG). The initiative was launched in 2014 to address the need for accessible storybooks and improved literacy. It is an initiative of Saide, a registered non-profit organization governed by a trust and based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The project has a website that provides free access to readings with several mobile and desktop applications for reading, enabling offline reading and storybook creation. The website allows one to read, create, download, translate and adapt storybooks.
Impact / Outcome
The African Storybook initiative enables children to read for learning and pleasure. It has a publishing model that makes the text available cost-effectively and contains more than 3,100 unique storybooks, most of which have African origins with over 200 African languages.
It has proven invaluable to target children and provide them with a creative and fun way to publish their own stories. Moreover, organizations working with language marginalized communities make the most of the app by publishing stories and books in their languages.
Funding sources
Private
Key Metrics
Address the need for accessible storybooks and improved literacy
Operating model
Fully privateYear published
01 January 2022