Children’s books, in particular engaging, colorful children’s books, are crucial for early literacy. More than that, books provide mirrors in which children can see themselves and windows through which they can see how other people live. But all over the world there are children who don’t have books or don’t have books that are culturally or linguistically suitable for them.
When Ellenore Angelidis, founder of Open Hearts Big Dreams (OHBD), told her Ethiopian-born daughter Leyla that other children didn’t always get to go to school or even have books, Leyla, at the time a toddler, responded with a simple truth, “That’s not fair!” and a behest: “You need to fix it.” OHBD was founded in 2016 with the goal of increasing literacy, inclusion, innovation readiness, and leadership skills in Ethiopia and beyond. It is a Seattle-based non-profit organization whose founder is also a Rotary member of the University District of Seattle Club.
OHBD’s primary literacy project is the creation, publishing, printing, translation, and distribution of our Ready Set Go Books. So far, OHBD has created nearly 200 award-winning, copyrighted, high quality books. The creative team is led by a Portland-based award-winning children’s books author who grew up in Ethiopia, Jane Kurtz. She was the recipient of an IBBY-iRead Reading Promoter award in 2022, only two given globally every two years. Ready Set Go Books are written by a range of authors, with coaching from Jane, for young readers, beautifully illustrated by volunteer artists around the globe, and printed bilingually in English and more than 30 other languages.
While the original emphasis was on books in Ethiopian languages (15 so far of the 70-90 spoken), the reach of the project has grown beyond that to a wide range of African and global languages, from Kiswahili and Igbo to Spanish and Arabic to Vietnamese and German. The goal is to provide these books in children’s mother tongues, which makes learning to read more motivating. These books have a range of culturally appropriate stories and nonfiction topics, with themes of conservation, inclusion, and girl empowerment, that will engage both children living in the cities and small villages in Ethiopia and children living in the United States or Europe. Schools and libraries across the world carry these books.
OHBD works to provide these wonderful books to as many children as possible, and we need your help. Rotarians can partner, volunteer, and otherwise work with OHBD in a variety of ways:
- Sponsor a diverse bilingual book donation project in your community.
- For previous projects, Rotary Clubs have contributed funds to buy books for local cultural community organizations.
- These organizations have then made the books available to their communities and held reading events.
- The response has been universally positive, and the languages included both Ethiopia and others like Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Vietnamese.
- Purchase Ready Set Go Books for yourself or others.
- They are available through Amazon, other book sites, and our own books website.
- Each purchase helps us print these books locally in Ethiopia and provide to children there.
- Rotary has supported a number of readying rooms in Ethiopia using these books.
- Make a request for your local library to carry Ready Set Go Books.
- This makes them available to your community!
- Work with OHBD as a volunteer:
- Organize and host a reading event, illustrate a book, and so much more.
- Join our Buy a Book Club – for $5 a month, you can spread book joy in Ethiopia.
- Bring your own ideas! Do you know children who would love our books? We would love to connect with you!