Worldreader, who are busy in a number of African countries bringing ereaders into poor rural schools have just announced the formal launch of their ebook App Worldreader Mobile to bring free ebooks to Feature phones.

Since the beta launch of this App, almost half a million people in  Africa and India have downloaded the App and have been devouring free ebooks at a rate that is almost impossible to imagine.  Literally tens of thousands of ebooks have been downloaded and read on these relatively simple 2G mobile phones thanks to this App.

Young girl reading an ebook on her mother’s mobile phone

Worldreader have put together an informative PDF that explains exactly what has happened with all relevant figures, which you can read by following this link.   This is a 25 page document, simply bursting with information.. and very well worth reading if you want to see how such a relatively simple idea as this App can totally revolutionise the lives of people who otherwise would have no access to reading.

I read this document with fascination and happiness, to see such an amazing take up of an idea is enormously encouraging, and totally validates the work that Worldreader have been doing for the last couple of years in Africa to bring literature to poor communities in a totally practical and realistic fashion.

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Worldreader, a group of people busy bringing Kindles into loads of schools in Africa have just released this rather charming video of a bunch of kids learning to read using their Kindles.

You may be saying “so what?  Just a bunch of kids reading out loud in their classroom.”   But the point of this video is not to show you how good at reading aloud these kids are, but the happy fact that each kid has an ereader in front of them, and those ereaders are effectively owned by those kids.  This in a part of the world where it is more normal for a school to have only a small handful of battered books for kids to read from.

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Thanks to an amazing grant of $300 000 that Worldreader have received from USAID, World Vision, & AusAID, they have started up another ereader/ebook project in Ghana, the country where it all began for them.

This new project called “All Children Reading” is only possible because of the generosity of those three aid organisations, and that money will translate into about 1800 Kindles, and of course the many thousands of ebooks that can be carried in these Kindles.

Just think about this for a second.  It means that another almost 2000 kids and their families and communities will now have access to thousands of books, both text books for school use and novels for pleasure reading – Currently Worldreader has distributed some 200 000 copies of ebooks to the four countries they are operating in in Africa.   When you think that before Worldreader started their work, most of these poor rural schools would have had – at best – a couple of old and dog-eared books to be shared between all the kids in the school…  Now they have access to hundreds and thousands of books, both in English and in local languages (this last also thanks to the work of Worldreader who have encouraged African writers and publishers to publish their work in ebook form).

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Worldreader has just celebrated the end of an enormously successful 2012, in the course of which they have spread their activities to no less than 5 African countries now (Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania), they have launched an amazingly successful mobile phone app, which has allowed something like 500 000 users around Africa to access ebooks on thier mobile phones, given out thousands of Kindles and hundreds of thousand copies of a huge range of ebooks, both Western and African.

Now to celebrate the start of the new year, they have just delivered a further 100 000 to Kenya!

They were given a grant of $300 000 by ”All Children Reading: Grand Challenge for Development” Award” which was obviously a wonderful shot in the arm for them and their work.  Sadly they didn’t manage to win any of the money that Chase were giving away, but time enough, and they did get as far as the final list on that, which in itself is a wonderful achievement for such a young charity.

They have entered into partnerships with publishers all over the world, many of whom have donated hundreds, if not thousands of ebooks to the work, and perhaps even more importantly, they have worked with African publishers and writers to cause a huge flood of African writing to be published, both as paper books and as ebooks for the Kindles.  A great shot in the arm for African writing to say the least.

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From now until 4th December you can cast your vote (link below) in the America Gives action.  If you simply click on the link below and cast your vote – costs you nothing and only takes about 30 seconds, Worldreader stand a chance to receive a grant of $1 000 000 which would give them the possibility of helping thousands of poor kids in rural Africa – Work which they have started a few years ago in Ghana, Uganda and Kenya so far, and all with resounding success.   So off you go and cast your vote…

In the mean time, here are a couple of videos and a load of images that should give you an idea of what you will be supporting.

So, now you have a better idea of what Worldreader is achieving and attempting in Africa.   Now it is up to you, follow the voting link below and cast your vote for Worldreader.  It doesn’t matter where you live in the world, we can all vote on this one…..  And bringing reading and books to these kids is perhaps one of the most useful things you will ever do in your life….  A thought, isnt it?

Link to vote:

Here is one way.

Here is another way:

Or on your Facebook page:

So, with all my thanks to you good folk for supporting this action, as I know you will do, as book lovers.

In a few days you will be able to cast your votes for Worldreader at the American Giving Awards on NBC.

Specifically as from 27th November until 4th December you can cast your vote for Worldreader in a number of places online, (see links below).

Worldreader is one of 25 charities who have been chosen to stand a chance of winning a grant of $1 000 000 if they receive enough votes, so it is up to all of us who care for literacy and the future to support them by the simple and painless means of simply casting a vote online in that short period.

As you may know, Worldreader is a not-for-profit group who have set themselves the task of bringing ereaders (Kindles) and ebooks to the poorer rural schools in various African countries.

So far they have been busy in Ghana, Uganda and Kenya and have distributed several hundred thousand free ebooks to over a thousand kids in a number of rural schools in those countries.  They have also encouraged African publishers and writers to support their work by issuing ebooks that relate closely to the kid’s experiences of life.

The work they do in the various schools is assessed regularly by independent experts, and so far has shown great success, the reading abilities of the kids have rocketed upwards, and as a result, so has their general level of scholastic attainment.   Literacy is the key to development in this world, that is for sure.

And, as you will see if you read any of the posts I have written about their work, they have bought pleasure and dreams into the lives of thousands of kids, their families and communities, as mostly the Kindles are actually given to the kids, so the influence of ebooks spreads through the entire village community, not simply as a classroom resource.

So please use the links below to cast your vote for Worldreader and with an investment of about 5 minutes of your time, give a real chance of a vastly better life to many thousands of kids in Africa….   All of you please.  If you have a Facebook page or other such social media, please do share this post with all your contacts there as well, and ask them to do the same … and thus the good word will spread.

So here are the details:-

When to vote:

From 27th November to 4th December;

How to vote:

If you are in the USA;

You can vote online at these two sites:

Chase Giving Website

Chase Giving Facebook Page.

For people outside the USA:

https://apps.facebook.com/americangivingawards/charity/view/id/10  (this page will be alive from 27th November).

When will we know the results?

NBC will air the whole thing on 8th December, and I will certainly report on the results here as well.

Link to Worldreader: