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Many children in Ethiopia do not encounter a book until they begin primary school at age seven, however the early years are critical for future success. Children raised in safe, stimulating, and nurturing environments are far more likely to succeed in school and their lives. Investment in early childhood development is one of the most effective ways to reduce long-term poverty.

That’s why we’re proud to be integrating reading corners into existing health facilities across the city of Addis Ababa, stocking them with a range of books suitable for younger children, and training parent health coaches to help families build strong reading habits at home. The ECD initiative brings together health and nutrition services, social support, day care, quality pre-primary schools, and learning through play for 300,000 vulnerable families across Addis Ababa.

To connect meaningfully with young children and their caregivers, we first needed books designed for them. Ethiopia Reads led the creation of eight new board books and two storybooks (and printed 20,000 copies in total). The board books were the first ever printed at scale in Ethiopia. These small, sturdy books, specifically designed for the little hands and exploring mouths of babies and toddlers ages 0-3, have been developed so parents can share stories with their children from the very beginning of their lives.

These new books will be available in the reading corners and will also be taken by 5,000 Ethiopia Reads-trained parent coaches directly into the homes of families across Addis Ababa. To truly create a culture of reading in Ethiopia, we believe that it is essential to provide parents and caregivers with the tools to prioritize reading and language development within the home. There is no reading exercise more powerful than a parent reading aloud to their child. We want to make sure that more Ethiopian parents have the fundamental knowledge and books to do that.

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In June of 2024, Ethiopia Reads was asked to partner with iCog (formerly known as iCog-ACC), a well-known Ethiopian tech company led by Ms. Bethlehem Dessie, to engage in an interactive book project funded by Curious Learning. Curious Learning is a US-based NGO that develops award-winning, rigorously tested, free mobile apps that allow anyone to learn to read anywhere in the world. Its content is available in over 45 languages but did not include Ethiopian languages until this partnership.

iCog approached ER hoping to find Ethiopian children’s book creators who could write and animate interesting content-rich books for children ages 2-8. The books were to be written in a familiar context, emphasizing the connection between animation and text. The content of the interactive books was intended to provide a language-learning experience for young readers across Ethiopia. Because ER has offered children’s book writing courses, we were a perfect fit! Led by ER Board Member Elizabeth Taylor, dedicated writers in the advanced writing program were asked to submit drafts following specific guidelines. Their drafts were submitted, and five stories were chosen by the iCog team. Then two Ethiopian animators and three Ethiopian translators began their work. A month and a half from the start, the ER team had written, translated, and animated all five stories! iCog digitized the stories to become interactive magic.

The official launch of this wonderful project will take place at our 5th Annual Children’s Reading Summit in Addis Ababa on 2-3 April 2025. We are very proud of this project as it has the potential to reach millions of children in Ethiopia!

We are grateful to all the authors, animators, translators, and everyone at iCog and Curious Learning, and especially Elizabeth Taylor for leading this incredible project.

Android Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.curiouslearning.container

Web-based links to the interactive books and interactive games are below.

Amharic Content
FTM: https://feedthemonster.curiouscontent.org/?cr_lang=amharicInteractive Book “Come

Come”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ComeComeAmharic
Interactive Book “Guess What I Am?”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=GuessWhatIAmAmharic
Interactive Book “I Am Flying”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=IAmFlyingAmharic
Interactive Book “I Love”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ILoveAmharic
Interactive Book “The Umbrellas”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=TheUmbrellasAmharic

Oromo Content
FTM: https://feedthemonster.curiouscontent.org/?cr_lang=oromo
Interactive Book “Come Come”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ComeComeOromo
Interactive Book “Guess What I Am?”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=GuessWhatIAmOromo
Interactive Book “I Am Flying”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=IAmFlyingOromo
Interactive Book “I Love”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ILoveOromo
Interactive Book “The Umbrellas”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=TheUmbrellasOromo

Somali Content
FTM: https://feedthemonster.curiouscontent.org/?cr_lang=somali
Interactive Book “Come Come”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ComeComeSomali
Interactive Book “Guess What I Am?”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=GuessWhatIAmSomali
Interactive Book “I Am Flying”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=IAmFlyingSomali
Interactive Book “I Love”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ILoveSomali
Interactive Book “The Umbrellas”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=TheUmbrellasSomali

Tigrigna Content
FTM: https://feedthemonster.curiouscontent.org/?cr_lang=tigragna
Interactive Book “Come Come”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ComeComeTigirigna
Interactive Book “Guess What I Am?”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=GuessWhatIAmTigirigna
Interactive Book “I Am Flying”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=IAmFlyingTigirigna
Interactive Book “I Love”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=ILoveTigirigna
Interactive Book “The Umbrellas”: https://curiousreader.curiouscontent.org/?book=TheUmbrellasTigirigna

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Ethiopia Reads is honored to have sponsored this year’s Best Children’s Book Award. Congratulations to the book The Tailor and the Four Mice by Behailu Gebre-Egiziabher for winning the 4th Annual Best Children’s Book of the Year from library organization, The HoHe Award! Pictured below is our Country Director awarding the prize to the winning author.

The other wonderful nominees included: The Bike and Other Short Stories by Mekbib Abebe and The Gang of Seven by Tesfaye G/Mariam.

Yemisrach Worku presenting the award to the winning author at the Hohe Award Ceremony

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Books bring hope and joy even in difficult times*   As the news of fighting and unrest in Ethiopia reaches us, we feel tremendously sad for the Ethiopian people and frustrated about the effects on their children’s education. Between 3 to 4 million Ethiopians have been displaced across the country of which over 2 million have been uprooted by conflicts in northern Ethiopia. Ethiopia Reads is responding and adapting to meet the urgent, large-scale needs of children whose normal lives, including education, have been interrupted. For the first time, Ethiopia Reads has gifted books directly to displaced families to support their children’s progress in reading, the basic foundation for their future education.    Despite this year’s challenges, our regular programs have continued and our determined staff was able again to deliver 100,000 books to children, schools, and libraries across Ethiopia.  BOOKS FOR DISPLACED FAMILIES Ethiopia Reads staff handing out book packets to families at IDP site* Many Ethiopian children have missed most of the last school year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccination is not widely available in Ethiopia but most children, under restrictive pandemic protocols, have now returned to school. However, children living at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) sites continue to lack access to formal education. To support them,  Ethiopia Reads won funding from the World Bank to print 45,000 illustrated storybooks** in multiple Ethiopian languages and gifted them to the children of 15,000 displaced families across Ethiopia.   ER staff leading parent information session at IDP site* Within four weeks of being awarded the funding, Ethiopia Reads’ staff had completed the project. We obtained official approvals, identified suitable titles, created parent support materials in 3 local languages, printed 45,000 books, packaged them attractively in packets of 3 titles for each family (with multiple different title combinations at each site), and identified four sites (working with the regional education bureaus and the IDP agencies) across Ethiopia. We also physically delivered the books to 5,000 Somali-speaking families (2 sites in Faran), to 5,000 Afaan Oromo-speaking families (1 site in East Hararghe) and to 5,000 Amharic-speaking families (1 site in North Shoa) and ran parent information sessions on encouraging reading at home. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach sites in Tigray.   Our team was accompanied by experienced photographer and filmmaker Yared Shumete. Yared was thrilled to be involved. He talked to many parents and reported that seeing their children’s excitement and interest in the books brought a reprieve from the uncertainty and discomfort of their lives. Most importantly, the gift of books brought a sense of hope and possibility for their children’s future.  Children reading at the Fafan Zone (Babile District) IDP site* In the process, we became better aware of the enormous needs of millions of displaced children who are missing out on education. We are returning to these distribution sites to assess and learn how to better support the families using and sharing these books. Please go here to support more books for IDP camps.  BOOK DISTRIBUTION AND EDUCATOR TRAINING IN OROMIA Educators at training in Ambo Earlier in October, we also printed and donated 36,000 copies of 12 attractive Afaan Oromo language early reader titles** to 90 primary schools around both towns of Adama and Ambo. During this process, we also hosted training workshops for 175 educators with advice, ideas and ER Curriculum Guides (also in Afaan Oromo) on how best to creatively engage and support their students in independent reading. Still today, most Ethiopian primary schools have no library and few books beyond textbooks Teachers in Adama learning to use ER Curriculum Guides That’s not all! Our highly motivated and determined team in Ethiopia accomplished much, much more.    We continued to provide reading support directly and indirectly to children at schools through our 80 Ethiopia Reads libraries. We continue to expand our educator training and parent advice to increase awareness and knowledge of supporting children to develop the habit of independent reading.This year we also:Donated 15,000 books to launch the children’s section at the brand-new Addis Ababa City Library, now the largest public library in EthiopiaPrinted and delivered 9,000 Somali language early readers and curriculum guides to schools around Jijiga and trained many educatorsHeld a summer camp with fun and educational activities for 50 children at our Gebeta Library in Addis Ababa.Maintained and expanded capacity at our Hawassa Reading Center to provide an additional 90 spaces per day to read and study.Created reading corners at various events through the year in Addis AbabaExpanded our Amharic language ER digital media channel (on YouTube and Facebook) to provide direct support to parents and children reading at home. Created teacher’s Curriculum Guides for many Amharic and Somali early reader titles. Children with books created by OHBD* Over the last two decades, Ethiopia Reads has been proud and grateful to have become a highly professional organization despite our size. We have consistently focused on supporting Ethiopian children reading and improving literacy in a country with over 42 million Ethiopian children under 15 years old. Data show that as of 2018, only 6% of primary students read at grade level and 25% could not read a single word. Literacy is an invisible crisis in Ethiopia profoundly affecting the country’s long-term future. Ethiopians have much to do to promote and support better access to reading for all of Ethiopia’s children.   Finally, we are thankful for our team in Ethiopia who are committed to our mission, courageous, professional, and full of heart. They are always willing to go well beyond what is required to get books into the hands of children across Ethiopia and support their reading.   Delighted children at an IDP site enjoying the gifted books together* Our continued efforts to deliver and promote support for reading to Ethiopian children will not be possible without your generous financial support. These days are extremely arduous for the Ethiopian people and to keep our long-term work going we will need your gifts. Please donate today online or via check. We will gladly send a handwritten greeting card on your behalf to honor a special person.    Thank you in advance for your continuing support of Ethiopia Reads. Happy Holidays and have a healthy and prosperous 2022!   *We are grateful to Yared Shumete for his beautiful work documenting our team’s passion. Find him on Twitter at @YaredShumete    **The titles that we selected to donate at both the IDP sites and the Afaan Oromo schools are from the 100 plus Ready Set Go titles created by the Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund. We are delighted to have so many creative, attractive, and culturally appropriate books available to share with Ethiopian children

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One of Ethiopia Reads’ Founders and Past President, Jane Kurtz, has dreamed that there would be more children’s books in Ethiopia. Since 2017, Jane has led the way for the creative yet simple magic of Ready Set Go Books. These playful and culturally appropriate books are published under the Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund Ready Set Go Books Project. The sales of these artistically illustrated books help to create more books. (Please see below.) This past year Open Hearts Big Dreams reached an incredible milestone of creating 100 RSG book titles! Many of these titles are already printed in several local Ethiopian languages such as Amharic, Dizin, Afaan Oromo and Tigrinya.

In January, our Addis Ababa office were delighted to receive the translation of the first 10 of these titles into the Somali language, assisted by the Somali State Education Bureau. It is incredibly significant that these books were translated into Somali to provide mother tongue reading materials for Somali-speaking children. The Somali Region is located in the south western part of Ethiopia and the region has the 4th largest population in the country, with around 6 million people, of whom nearly 4 million are under 19 years old. Sadly, the region also has one of the lowest success in children’s reading in Ethiopia for many reasons. With generous support from Open Hearts Big Dreams and Ethiopia Reads’ sponsors, 60,000 of these books in Somali and other Ethiopian languages will be printed in Ethiopia and distributed to children who urgently need more and better books to read. 

Each title has its own teacher’s guide for educators created by volunteers from the Ethiopia Reads’ Book Centered Learning Committee. This committee is made up of professional educators and leaders in children’s literacy such as our Board Member, Dr. Laurie Curtis. Ethiopia Reads’ Addis Ababa office is responsible for printing these early reader books, distributing them to primary schools throughout the country  along with teacher’s guides for each book. Additionally, we will provide professional development training to all educators who will be using these books to help them encourage reading for pleasure outside of the classroom and support to improve literacy. 

Your generous donation to Ethiopia Reads will help to print and distribute thousands of these educational, unique and colorful early reader books in local languages as well as the translation and printing of the teacher’s guides. We are excited for another productive year of helping children reach their dreams of reading. 

Open Hearts Big Dream, Ready Set Go Books are available for purchase in the US on Amazon.com. You can also support local bookstores by purchasing these beautiful books from www.Bookshop.org

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LeAnn was the President of the Kansas Reading Association when she first met Jane Kurtz, Co-Founder of Ethiopia Reads. Thus began LeAnn’s mission of collecting, storing, sorting, packing, labeling, and shipping books for Ethiopian children. The Clarks have driven across the midwest to collect children’s books for Ethiopia Reads. Books have arrived from as far away as Florida, New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They recruited hundreds of volunteers to help with this shipment and three other ones.

LeAnn made her first trip to Ethiopia in 2005 and returned in 2010 as a part of a group supported by the U.S. Fulbright-Hays Grant. She encouraged and brought along several Kansas-based educators who eventually formed our steadfast Book Centered Learning (BCL) Committee. To this day, LeAnn continues to devote her time to literacy in Ethiopia and, next month, she will participate in Ethiopia Reads’ Second Children’s Reading Summit in Addis Ababa, along with her colleagues on the BCL team.

Thank you, LeAnn and Stan for your incredible energy and heart for reading and children. We are grateful to the Clarks and all the volunteers and helpers who made this incredible gift of books happen!

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