Kenya’s eKitabu is among five projects to be funded by The African Publishing Innovation Fund (APIF) to support learning in Africa.
The African Publishing Innovation Fund (APIF), has chosen five projects across Africa to receive Ksh. 18.6 million ($170,000) in funding in 2021. The APIF is a grant program co-founded by the UAE-based global philanthropic organization Dubai Cares and implemented by the International Publishers Association (IPA).
The APIF Committee, chaired by IPA President Bodour Al Qasimi selected the winners from 311 applications received from 26 African countries. This is the second round of the grants program, which is funded by a four-year, Ksh. 87.7 million ($800,000) commitment from Dubai Cares.
The program comes following the closure of schools and transition to online learning in response to COVID-19. APIF prioritized scalable digital learning innovations to help millions of African students in under-resourced rural communities.
The winning initiatives to receive grants in five African countries are
1. Ghana: The Learners Girls Foundation from Ghana will support 400 at-risk Ghanaian girls in Paga, a rural community of 100,000, to continue their education and access educational resources.
2. Kenya: eKitabu will work with publishers to enrich the remote learning of more than nine million students and teachers with accessible digital learning materials. The initiative will start in East Africa’s regional publishing hub of Kenya, with plans to scale to 12 African countries.
3. Rwanda: Save the Children Rwanda will train 270 librarians in eight community libraries on the use of technology. This will in turn strengthen a culture of reading in remote and rural communities while providing digitally accessible reading materials in Kinyarwanda, the local language. This will in turn keep 1.6 million children reading while unable to attend school.
4. Tanzania: Book Aid International will transform three shipping containers into fully-equipped libraries in Dunga, a rural community of about 76,000. Here, children can enjoy reading, young learners can study for exams, and adults can read and learn new skills.
5. Zimbabwe: Led by Chirikure Chirikure, the country’s most famous poet, this initiative will build a modern community library in Nemashakwe area, Gutu district. It will provide 800 students and youth access to books, a place to study, and programs to attain livelihood skills.
Commenting on the APIF grant recipients, IPA President Bodour Al Qasimi said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has set back the education of millions of learners around the world, but its effects are acutest where the infrastructure cannot support the connectivity required for distance learning.”
In addressing challenges faced by learners, through publishing innovation, APIF is contributing to avoiding a lost generation of youth which lacks critical literacy, livelihood, and life skills.