Improve education for Nepali girls and minorities

Following the success of our first three original children’s books, we’ve started work on some new stories. Earlier this summer, we organized a writing workshop for teachers at our partner schools. It’s the first step in our plan to publish ten more titles over the next four years.

At the workshops, teachers browsed board books, pattern books, picture books, autobiographies and play books. They also sang along to traditional Nepali chanda poetry. The objective of the workshop was to understand the origin of storytelling as well as the different narrative forms of storytelling in theNepali language.

Teachers were encouraged to write a story of their own. Many of them were enthusiastic about the opportunity to create a storyboard as they began to draft their own stories.

Monita G, the editor of our first books and the treasurer of our partner organization in Nepal, Kakshyalaya, met with the teachers at the workshop. She shared the method that worked best for her as she revised the stories. She wrote multiple drafts before reading each one to students in different primary grades to get their input.

In another workshop, we invited friends of the organization, including board members, teachers and authors to join us and brainstorm story ideas. The two-day writing workshop included reading aloud, browsing books, story writing and group discussions. The workshop served as a good platform for creating and sharing vibrant and fun ideas. 

We ended up with three stories we think will become engaging books and look forward to publishing them in the near future. 

Your support is crucial to our publishing efforts. It takes a lot of work behind the scenes with our partners in schools and the community, to bring these stories to life on the page. Thank you for helping us spread the joy of reading!  

• A participant at our writing workshop this summer (PDF)