Our vision
Book Dash believes that every child should own one hundred books by the age of five.
To that end, we gather creative professionals who volunteer to create new, African storybooks that anyone can freely translate, print and distribute. In this way, we have vastly reduced the costs involved in putting high-quality books in children’s hands and hearts.
Our history
Book Dash began in 2014 as a vision project among friends who wished to pool their collective skills in the publishing industry to flood the country with new, high-quality, affordable African picture books for all. Since then, we’ve created more than 100 books and distributed more than a million copies. We’ve also received multiple awards for our innovative approach and top quality open content.
“We love Book Dash books! They are an amazing tool to use in a variety of ways to help focus our educational interventions more clearly to meet our desired outcomes. We use the books in a variety of ways from knowing colour and shapes to spelling and maths, while also developing comprehension, reading skills and a love of reading.”
Tshepong Children’s Project
“I am very grateful that I could start my multi-lingual picture book app BookaBooka off with some publicly available content! I was amazed with the quality of the illustrations of some of the books. The ability to change the pictures and the story itself was key in being able to use this content. Thank you for this broad license. “
Sjors Miltenburg,
BrainBro
“Having books of their own at home makes children proud and encourages them to read more. The Book Dash books provided wonderful stories that children can read and understand in their own time, which helps make reading more accessible. We love this project and how happy it makes children to own their own books.”
Thanda Afterschool Project,
Distribution Partner
“I decided to give this story to the world for free. I have received so much from everybody. This is my little payback.”
Sindiwe Magona,
Book Dash Writer
“Visits to partners who received the Book Dash books last year are showing real evidence of progress as they deepen their literacy work and, of course, youngsters’ ownership of books.”
Cecily Salmon,
The Solon Foundation
Info for community-based organisations
Qualifying organisations can apply to become distribution partners of Book Dash books.
How we use our funds
Our funding partners, whether their funding is destined for operational expenses or for book-printing, comment with delight that they get more bang (or books) for their bucks because of our economical approach to the management of creating new books and printing at scale to reduce unit costs.
Donate to Book Dash
We’d like to put one million books in the hands of children by the end of 2020 and you can help us reach that goal!