Give The Gift of a Mini-Library of Books and Educational Games to an Afghan Refugee Child!

Did you know that February 14th was both Valentine’s Day (in the U.S.) and also International Book Giving Day?

The mEducation Alliance wants to provide mini-libraries of print and digital children’s books (کتابخانه or کتابتون ) in Dari, Pashto (the official languages spoken in Afghanistan) and English to Afghan families in the United States. 

Why: Afghan children, like all children, have the right to access books at home, libraries, and in other locations. Research has shown that literacy levels for kids surges at 80 books, underscoring that being surrounded by lots and lots of books where they live helps a child build vocabulary, increase awareness and comprehension, and expand horizons — all benefiting them in adulthood, according to this study and reflected in this article

Empirical evidence also underscores the importance of home language resources for English Language Learners. Through access to these mini-libraries they’ll develop a higher self-confidence in sharing feelings and emotions. Reading can spark their imagination and stimulate their curiosity. While books also will help their brain, social skills and communication skills develop throughout their life.

How to Help

Help us build a mini-library collection of approximately 25 early grade books in Dari, Pashto, and English!

For the Dari and Pashto language titles, we’ve pulled these from the 100’s of free and digital early grade titles on the mEducation Alliance’s Afghan Kids Support Hub site. Through our partnerships with HP and NABU, a number of these digital titles have been converted to print. Starting mid-May 2022, 10,000 copies of these children’s books will be disseminated through a network of institutional partners, with half of the titles sent to the District of Columbia, Maryland and Northern Virginia area, and the other half distributed in California. 

For the English language titles, we will purchase new pre-primary/primary leveled books selected by an expert panel of individuals and organizations with deep familiarity with children’s literacy and drawing inspiration from books recommended by the American Library Association , through the Library of Congress’ Center for the Books, and organizations such as Bring Me A Book.

Along with the print titles in the mini-library collections, we will also disseminate low-cost educational games (e.g., dice and card deck-based, chess sets and other tabletop games) and access to accompanying instructions in Dari, Pashto and English as part of our Math Game Youth Ambassadors initiative.

Among other collaborators, we will work with an extensive network of refugee-serving organizations, faith-based institutions, libraries, Rotarians, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) communities to disseminate the mini-libraries to Afghan refugee families.

Give Any Amount Large or Small in Honor of your Valentine!

We want to develop and distribute 2,000 mini-libraries. Our goal is to raise $500 for each mini-library, which will include:

  • 4 print volumes of 12 children’s stories in either Dari and/or Pashto
  • English language children’s books
  • A kid-friendly tablet with 100s of digital books and apps including the free collections on our Afghan Kids Support Hub web page
  • Educational games and associated training (e.g, math games)
  • Connections to a variety of literacy and math-serving organizations
  • Expanding our Afghan Kids Support Hub efforts

Want to donate funding for a complete mini-library, make other in-kind contributions, become an Afghan Kids Support Hub (AKSH) sponsor, and/or request more information, please contact us at AKSH@meducationalliance.org.

For information on this fundraising campaign in Dari and Pashto, please click the links below for translated material: 

Collaborating Partners

Learn more about our connected Signature Activities

Afghan Kids Support Hub

A variety of free reading material in Dari and Pashto available

Math Power!

Math Game Ambassadors: Youth teaching other youth about math games

Literacy League

Featuring literacy app developers with free content in numerous languages

#InspirationSTEM

Inspiring young girls to pursue STEM education and careers through flight
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Support the mEducation Alliance and Our Work!

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