Translate a Story

General FAQs

How is this event responding to COVID-19?

Over 1.5 billion children are now learning at home because their schools have been shut down due to the spread of the virus. This sprint is an effort to make high-quality supplementary reading materials available for children to learn at home in a language they speak and understand.

Students who use underserved languages face a shortage of appropriate early grade reading materials. In addition, school closures are likely to disrupt their learning more than the learning of students who speak a more common language, for example English.

By providing high-quality reading materials in all languages, including those that are traditionally underserved, we give all students a chance to continue their reading journeys at home.

Why is there a need for early grade literacy materials in different languages?

Learners in some countries face many challenges, such as absence or underfunding of literacy programs, conflict and crisis, which interfere with the development of appropriate reading materials for young learners. At times children are asked to use or learn a language at school that they do not speak at home. In addition, the reading materials provided to primary students are in a language those children do not speak at home.

Research has shown that in order to encourage a lifelong love of reading, children benefit from reading in the language they speak at home, also known as their mother tongue.

Let’s add as many languages to our platforms as we can, so students can read in their mother tongue!

How much time do we have to translate a book? Is there a deadline?

Your organization can take as much time as needed to translate a book. This particular translation push is between April 23 and September 8, 2021. It takes approximately 1 hour to translate one book, with variations depending on the level.

Is there a cost to participate?

No, there are no costs to participate! We appreciate your organization volunteering their time to contribute to these efforts.

My organization can’t participate this time around, but are there other opportunities to contribute?

There is a community of organizations that work to fill in gaps in local language content, and we are part of a large community of literacy professionals and enthusiasts working to fill this resource gap. In addition to the organizers, check out the work of other organizations like Bloom and Libraries without Borders to see like-minded efforts.

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