2022

We believe that by empowering disadvantaged children and their families through literacy acquisition and reading literature, helping them gain the basic and essential skills, they can get themselves out of the cycle of poverty and deficiency.
Read Zohreh Ghaeni's full interview here.

Zohreh Ghaeni is a children’s literature expert, lecturer, researcher, and major reading promoter. She has worked as a teacher in rural areas of Iran, studied librarianship and information science at the Open University in Tehran and is now the co-founder and director of the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature in Iran founded 20 years ago, which is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. In that capacity, she has directed and co-authored the publication of a ten-volume history of children’s literature in Iran, a monumental achievement. As part of the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature in Iran, Zohreh designed and developed a reading programme that has had huge success all over Iran and Afghanistan: Read With Me. This project makes high quality books accessible to children who normally do not have access to books, such as street and working children, those living in remote and deprived areas, and those living in crisis due to unrest, natural disaster and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

"So far, we have more than 100 titles published and we've printed about 250,000 books in Ethiopia, but our goal is to print at least a million books in the future. We know providing children with appealing reading material in their own languages can make a huge difference."
Read Jane Kurtz's full interview here

Jane Kurtz grew up in Ethiopia and has spent the last 25 years helping to develop indigenous authors and illustrators in Ethiopia—and in multiple languages—while also establishing an infrastructure for publishing books and promoting literacy with training for teachers and librarians. Her work began in 1998 when she co-founded Ethiopia Reads and developed a strategy for starting libraries to support literacy development. In early 2016, Jane initiated a workshop in Ethiopia with artists, children and adult volunteers, which resulted in a prototype for Ready Set Go books. Created in partnership with Open Hearts Big Dreams, these books are colourful, easy-to-read, culturally appropriate, and published in English and one local language. Jane’s work with literacy addresses the challenges of multiple official languages; lack of books reflecting Ethiopian culture, history, and landscape; obstacles in the translation, publication, and distribution process; and insufficient professional opportunities for educators and librarians. With her vision and collaboration with others, she has planted the seeds of literacy all over Ethiopia.