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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Staff, board members, volunteers and speakers who attended the 2024 event

On April 11-12, 2024, Ethiopia Reads successfully held the 4th Children’s Reading Summit under the theme “Supporting Children in Early Learning”. Over 115 participants representing diverse institutions and backgrounds — ranging from schools and sub-cities to writers and publishers, ministry bureaus, government officials, international organizations, and professionals attended the event. We were lucky to have many early reading experts engaged and some presented at the Summit. Prior to the Summit, Board Member and children’s book author Elizabeth Spor Taylor lead two writing workshops: one for primary school aged children and one for advance adult authors.

Here the official summaries from the previous summits.

2019 – Proceedings Report for The First Annual Children’s Reading Summit

2020 – Proceedings Report for The Second Annual Children’s Reading Summit

2022 – Proceedings Report for The Third Annual Children’s Reading Summit

Coming soon 2024 Report

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Participants at the workshop with Elizabeth

Ethiopia Reads Board Member and author Elizabeth Spor Taylor ran the latest Advance Writing Workshop for Children’s Books this April. The Workshop preceded our 4th Children’s Reading Summit. In addition to Ethiopia Reads staff, 14 advance level writers attended the workshop to help the authors step-by-step to come up with concept books. In the month that followed since the workshop, Elizabeth has worked one-on-one with each aspiring author to complete their impressive and imaginative books!

Participants working in pairs with concept cards

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Yemisrach Worku (far left), Laurie Curtis (second from left) and Malcolm Clark (far right) with well known local children’s books authors: Mrs. Mary Jafer, Ms. Selamawit Mulugeta, Mr. Daniel Worku, Mr. Asres Bekele, and Mrs. Samrawit Arayamedhin (not pictured).

Our President, Malcolm Clark, and Board Member Dr. Laurie Curtis, Chair of the Book Centered Learning Committee, and Country Director Yemisrach Worku met with the five newly “sponsored” well known local children’s books authors. Ethiopia Reads signed royalty agreement with them to reprint their masterpieces and distribute to schools and libraries free of charge.  They will collect their royalty payments from ER.  These prolific writers are Mr. Daniel Worku (70+ children’s books titles), Mrs. Mary Jafer (40+ children’s books titles), Mrs. Samrawit Arayamedhin (14 children’s books titles), Mr. Asres Bekele (13 children’s books titles), Ms. Selamawit Mulugeta (5 children’s books titles). This Project is designed to promote and encourage local children book authors and improve the collection of good quality children’s story books inside libraries as well as to provide access to reading for children.

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ER staff and volunteers at the Reading Summit in Addis Ababa September 2022

Ethiopia Reads’ 3rd Children’s Reading Summit was an amazing success! It continues to be the only venue for educators in Ethiopia to come together to discuss, analyze the latest research and brainstorm solutions regarding children literacy in Ethiopia. We worked with the Ministry of Education and the National Archives and Library Agency with featured expert speakers from both organizations as well as those from the World Bank’s Read At Home project and Book Bugs to bring attention to many issues surrounding Ethiopian children’s reading and education and including those who are displaced.

Whenever we support children to have a special love for books, we are helping the whole nation.

Mr. Yikunoamlak Mezgebu

Director General of the National Archives and Library Agency,

Read more about the Summit in the news below.

Ethiopian Press Agency

East Africa Today

https://www.eastafricatoday.com/ethiopia-reads-hosts-3rd-summit-to-spark-youngsters-intellect-through-reading/

Please contact us if you would like to be involved or sponsor next year’s Summit.

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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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We are delighted that the Ministry of Education endorsed our Summit and is actively participating with officials and educators from all regions of Ethiopia. This week’s Summit will focus on reading, the challenges of appropriate reading materials and developing an Ethiopian book publishing industry. It will begin by reviewing last year’s Summit results and discussing progress.

Ethiopian speakers from academia, the educational system and publishing industry will share their knowledge and insights. Yemisrach Worku, Ethiopia Reads’ Country Director, Dr. Curtis and Ms. Kurtz, and I will also present at the conference.

The Summit will exhibit a wonderful collection of 2018 prize-winning children’s books from 60 countries around the world – generously loaned by the Swiss IBBY International – to inspire writers, illustrators and all those involved in purchasing books and to raise the bar on creativity and quality. 

ER continues our direct work with libraries and books. This Children’s Reading Summit was launched because we believe that to improve access to reading for Ethiopian children, we need to raise this issue nationally while involving all stakeholders. Ethiopian children need access to attractive and engaging reading materials to become fluent readers and to contribute to their own education and pleasure through reading. 

The total budget is approximately $US20,000. Ethiopia Reads has been actively seeking outside funding, but we still need to raise over half the total costs. (Our US board members and volunteers funded their own expenses.) 

Please consider making a contribution to this vital professional work that is creating an opportunity to change national policies for education, making hundreds more high quality libraries available to Ethiopian children, and perhaps, one day, to all 26 million school children in Ethiopia’s 35,000 primary schools.

Join Carol’s GoFundMe  or Donate Here 

With our heartfelt thanks!  

From Malcolm Clark, President of Ethiopia Reads

Photo by Matt Andrea

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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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