Provide Books to 30,000 Children in Afghanistan

Dear all,

Thank you for the generous donation that enabled us to begin this wonderful project to produce books for children in Afghanistan.

We are excited to share with you all our progress report and let you know what we did during this reporting period.

# Project Summary:

This project targets the most vulnerable, marginalized and underprivileged children in Afghanistan who are deprived of reading materials with proper contents in their mother tongue. The project will publish 30,000 copies of 5 story books in three languages (Farsi-Dari, Pashto and Uzbeki; 15 books in total) and make them available for children in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan through the network ABLE libraries. With the donations we have received so far, we started working on a book (Man wa Nihal [Me and the Plant]) in three languages mentioned above. As soon as the final draft is ready, 6,000 copies of the books will be printed and made ready for distribution.

# What is the Storybook About?

The storybook is titled Man Wa Nihal [Me and the Plant] and is written by one of the well-known children’s authors, Parween Pajwak. The main character of the story is a 6-year-old girl who lives with her parents in a village in Afghanistan. She does not have many friends and wishes to find someone to play with. One day, a plant in her garden responds to her and becomes her friend. Through this new friend, she learns a lot about nature and its importance in human life. As time passes by, she learns to respect and protect the environment.

# Editing and Proofreading of the Storybook

As mentioned in the previous report, the story (manuscript) was selected from among the five stories we received from the well-known children writers. During the reporting period, the ABLE technical team edited the selected story (Farsi-Dari version). The edited version was sent to the literary experts for review, who further added their inputs. All the feedback and changes were then shared with the author who made the revision accordingly. The revised version has been proofread a few times and shared with the Pashto and Uzbeki translators.

# Completion of the illustrations

The illustration of the storybook is completed. One of the well-known professional illustrators, with the experience of working on children books, has made the beautiful illustrations for the book as per the story’s requirement.

# Translation of the book in a Pashto Language 

The final version of the story in Farsi-Dari language has been translated into Pashto. The translation has been done by the literary expert in a Pashto Language. The translated story is currently being edited.    

# Translation of the book in Uzbeki Language  

The translation of the book into Uzbeki has finished. It was translated by an Uzbeki writer who has experience of working in both Farsi-Dari and Uzbeki languages. The editing of the story in Uzbeki language is ongoing and will be accomplished soon.

# Completion of the preliminary version of layout/graphic designing the book 

The preliminary layout and design of the storybook has been completed. Sample designs of the book’s jacket and the inside pages are attached with this report. Currently, our technical team are working to finalize the illustrations from among the best samples for the three separate versions (Farsi-Dari, Pashto and Uzbeki).

# The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impacts

During the reporting period, our offices remained closed due to the lockdown, thus it was not possible to continue our regular activities the same way. Our field visits to the provinces to establish new libraries and update the existing libraries with the new books had to be postponed. However, our dedicated team came up with an innovative idea of door-to-door books distribution, which continued throughout the lockdown. Similarly, most of our work for this specific project was also accomplished during the same period. The team finished the translation, illustration, and designing of the book during the lockdown. The result is a beautiful book that has emerged out of this effort (see the images).

# Plan for the Next Phase 

1)   A total of 6,000 copies of the book (Man wa Nihal), will be printed and disseminated through the network of 277 ABLE libraries throughout Afghanistan.

2)   A free digital copy of the book(s) will be made available through the online portal One Book One Child.

3)   With the donations we receive in the coming months, we plan to begin working on another storybook that would focus on COVID-19 pandemic.

With the lockdown announced by the Afghanistan government, schools and libraries (along with the other educational institutes) remain closed in Afghanistan. Amid the children/student’s frustrations arising because of their inability to access these places, there is an emerging social and economic crises which might grow more post COVID-19. Consequently, creating an emergency to address these issues to help children cope up with the possible situations that might arise in the next few months. Thus, our aim for the next phase will be to publish (6,000 copies of) a storybook (in three local languages: Farsi-Dari, Pashto and Uzbeki) focusing on the above mentioned issues and distribute it widely throughout Afghanistan to help children understand/learn the coping mechanisms.

Links:

• Free Children Books: One Book One Child e-Portal, ACKU