ADEA-USAID Global Book Alliance: Enabling African writers to publish quality reading materials for children across Africa
Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), 23rd April 2018 – The “Enabling Writers: Bloom Software Training of Trainers Workshop” on the award winning Bloom Software – developed by SIL-LEAD – just ended in Abuja (Nigeria) with the successful result of training 13 African Anglophone writers to design and publish quality reading resources with content that reflects the child's culture and language.
Under the ongoing Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)/Global Book Alliance (GBA), partnership supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the ADEA’s Working Group on Books and Learning Materials (WGBLM) has rolled out the first in a series of several training opportunities for African writers in local languages, popularly referred to as the “Enabling Writers: Bloom Software Training of Trainers Workshops”.
The Abuja’s workshop took place at the Chelsea Hotel from April 17 to 20 and it aimed at providing design and editing skills to African Anglophone writers of local languages books and learning materials. The training was facilitated by Dr. Paul Frank; Executive Director of SIL- LEAD based in Washington DC (USA) and assisted by Mr. Robert Waliaula, SIL- LEAD, Kenya office.The four-day technical workshop focused on: training in the basics of how to use the Bloom publishing software; creating decodable and leveled books and configuring Bloom for a particular language; designing shell books, e-PUB documents; recording audio for “talking books”; troubleshooting and practicing on advanced skills.The training brought together 13 participants from Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.
The opening ceremony was officiated by Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education of the Federal Ministry of Education of Nigeria, represented by Dr. Chioma Nwadei, his Director for the Educational Planning, Research and Development and Ms. Claris Ujam of the Federal Ministry of Education, and local ADEA contact for the workshop. In his speech, the Minister vowed to put in necessary measures to save Nigerian languages from becoming extinct. He further called upon Nigerian authors to write in local languages in order to help provide more books and reading materials in Nigerian languages. USAID was represented by Ms. Croshelle- Harris Hussein from the Abuja Office who underscored the importance of messages in books that promote community cohesion and values as well as conflict resolution. ADEA was represented by Ms. Lily Nyariki, Focal Point - Working Group on Books and Learning Materials for English Speaking Countries, who highlighted the importance of freeware software especially in the African publishing sector to produce more books, e-books and reading resources.
For more information, please contact:
- Lily Nyariki, Focal point of the ADEA Working Group on Books and Learning Material (WGBLM), Eldoret, Kenya, Tel.: (+254) 733 712117, lmnyariki@gmail.com / l.nyariki@adeanet.org
- Aliou Sow, Focal point of the ADEA Working Group on Books and Learning Material (WGBLM), Tel.: (+224) 622 54 48 26 / (+001) 514 803 6190, aliou2sow@yahoo.fr
Media:
- Stefano De Cupis, Senior Communications Officer, ADEA, T. (+225) 2026 4261, s.decupis@afdb.org
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About ADEA: The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) is a forum for policy dialogue, composed of all Ministers in charge of Education, Science and Technology in Africa. Established in 1988 at the instigation of the World Bank Group, it has evolved into a Pan-African institution based within the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). ADEA’s work has expanded to focus more on the development of skills and competencies across all the education sub-sectors. It envisions a “high quality African education and training system that is geared towards the promotion of critical knowledge and skills for accelerated and sustainable development in Africa”.
About WGBLM: The ADEA’s Working Group on Books and Learning Materials (WGBLM) is committed to supporting processes conducive to formulating adequate National Book Policies that improve the provision of good quality educational materials, effective schooling, and literacy across sub-Saharan Africa. It strives to accomplish this by calling on governments, the private sector, development agencies, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to consider a holistic approach that includes substantial input from African partners to achieve viable book policies. The WGBLM is the implementing arm for this project.
www.adeanet.org/en/working-groups/books-and-learning-materials
About GBA: The Global Book Alliance is an international effort involving multiple stakeholders working to transform book development, procurement, distribution, and use to ensure that no child is without books. Its mission is to guarantee that children everywhere have the books and learning materials they need to learn to read and read to learn. The lack of reading materials is so severe that it cannot be solved without new and innovative solutions. New and innovative solutions are needed to solve the learning crisis, and the Global Book Alliance is taking the lead on identifying and implementing these solutions.
About SIL-LEAD: SIL-LEAD is a US faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping local, community-based organizations use their own languages to improve their quality of life. SIL-LEAD is the manufacturer of Bloom, a free and open source publishing software, which allows communities to build their own library of graded reading materials, dictionaries, or resource material - in their own language.
