Support A Child's Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Foundational learning (which refers to the core skills of literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional development acquired during early childhood and primary education) is at the heart of success in school and a productive life. Early literacy is an important component of foundational learning. Yet nearly 9 in 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. Amongst the obstacles to attainment of reading proficiency is the near absence of appropriate books for early reading, particularly in local languages reflecting local contexts.

African Storybooksupports the creation and distribution of openly licensed, free-to-use digital and printed storybooks in languages of Africa. The initiative empowers parents, teachers, librarians, and other literacy activists to use the storybooks in meaningful, creative and engaging ways to support children to read for pleasure in diverse learning settings. This contributes to ensuring that every child reached and engaged by African Storybookdevelops critical foundational skills necessary for successful lifelong learning.

In the long run, children are better prepared for effective participation in school, and for lifelong learning in general, because they possess key foundational reading and learning competencies and an interest in reading for pleasure, facilitated in diverse learning settings and at home.

In May, the African Storybook concluded the 2025-2026 cycle of working with 20 individuals as literacy Champions in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and South Sudan. Altogether, they impacted their communities by directly reaching 23,500 children. They worked directly with 3,700 educators and over 15,000 parents supporting them to use the storybooks effectively with children. They used over 1,400 storybooks from the African Storybook website, digitally and in print format.

During this period, the Champions contributed to the storybook collection by translating 200 storybooks into their local languages and together with the children they support, created and published 70 new unique storybooks in the language of their choice.

Culturally relevant stories matter deeply. Children consistently responded positively to stories that reflected familiar settings, African identities, and local languages. A Champion Librarian from Ghana shared an example from an International Literacy Day session where a story was adapted using community members from nearby towns. This led to high levels of participation and excitement among children, teachers, and community members. Such moments demonstrate how contextually relevant reading materials build engagement and enhance a sense of belonging.

Links:

• http://www.africanstorybook.org

The African Storybook Initiative (ASb) fosters reading for pleasure and meaning for children from birth to ten years through the creation, translation, and distribution of openly licensed storybooks in the languages of Africa, in digital and print formats.

Children from underprivilged communities benefit most from the ASb initiative because they attend underresourced schools. With funding, we can prepare, print and distribute storybooks or distribute tablets to enable digital access of storybooks. Armed with either or both, we can empower educators, parents, librarians and literacy activists, to support children’s early literacy development and lifelong love of reading.

We would particularly support our growing network of ASb Champions working in underserved communities and diverse learning settings to awaken the agency of these communities so they can actively participate in their children's literacy journey. The current set of Champions spread across Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, together, impact the lives of over 50,000 children annually. They would reach many more if they had printed storybooks or more tablets.

Links:

• Openly licensed picture storybooks in children's languages.