Celebrating the Begin With Books project with our collaborators in Mali!
/On May 31, AMALAN (Malian Academy of Languages) organized a dedication ceremony for the 400+ children's books created by the LiNEMA project (Digital Books for our Children in Mali), also known as Begin with Books (BWB)-Mali.
SIL LEAD was the award winner from All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development for this project and managed the project. SIL International Mali was our technical partner in Mali and worked with Malian government counterparts to implement the project. A national television news program in Mali covered the ceremony.
The video (from 43.10 to 45.25):
The video in summary:
SIL Mali presented 200 books in Soninke and 200 books in Mamara, plus 20 sign language videos at the Académie Malienne des Langues (AMALAN). They were created during the LiNEMA project (Livres numériques pour nos enfants au Mali - Digital books for our children in Mali) thanks to an All Children Reading prize won by SIL LEAD.
In the video, SIL Mali Director Amagana Kouriba (sign language interpreter behind him) explains that the books are to be used in reading clubs, by families, in schools, and in kindergartens. Adama Diokolo Coulibaly, the director of AMALAN, also mentions the long-standing collaboration between AMALAN and SIL to promote national languages.
All the books are illustrated and audio recorded.
Digital books containing sign language videos were created for for deaf children.
Also, in the video, Kinane Ag Gadeda, General Secretary of the Ministry of Education in Mali, mentions the importance of all children reading and inclusive education.
And Adama Samassekou, former Minister of Education, praises the great efforts of SIL and AMALAN to produce digital books—which is a first for this approach.
The Ministry of Education and AMALAN reviewed and approved all of these books.
To check out the books for yourself, please visit the project’s bookshelf in the Bloom library.