One Million E-Readers Headed to Africa With FC Barcelona’s Help

One Million E-Readers Headed to Africa With FC Barcelona’s Help

Non-profit Worldreader kicked off a campaign Thursday aiming to put 1 million e-books in the hands of children across the planet, with a little help from players on one of the world’s most popular sports teams.

This may sound like a crazy goal, considering the widespread absence of books from African classrooms, but the organization is aleady well on its way. So far, Worldreader has donated 100,000 books to 1,000 students in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

The non-profit now wants to expand its reach throughout sub-Saharan Africa and has enlisted some capable help — the world-renowned players on FC Barcelona (Barça).

“We’re trying to get them to do something radically different,” David Risher, CEO and co-founder of Worldreader, and a former Microsoft and Amazon executive, told Mashable. “When a student sees the image of a player he idolizes, it brings a whole new culture and habit, associating reading with a hero. Using these tricks we can get kids to read more, making it more fun and a bigger part of their lives.”

The organization believes the popularity of Barça will inspire students to keep reading, when they see personalized messages on their e-readers from some of the team’s biggest stars, including Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Eric Abidal and Seydou Keita, encouraging them to “score big” and continue their education.

The donated e-books include classic literature, local African textbooks and story books, and newspapers from around the world. To help reach this distribution goal, Worldreader is seeking donations of $5, which pay for one e-book.

In addition to putting books in the hands of students, Worldreader gives local authors and publishers access to a larger market.

E-Readers Impact on Students in the Developing World

When Worldreader began delivering books to Ghana in November 2010, the non-profit launched a study, funded by USAID, measuring the first implementation of e-readers into classrooms in under-previledged areas. The study found performance on standardized test scores jumping between 12.9% and 15.7%.

While Worldreader’s mission is to put a library of books in the hands of every kid on the planet, distribution isn’t the only challenge. Half the effort is getting kids excited about doing something new.

“To classroom teachers, e-readers just feel like having more books — they’re not significantly new technology to adopt,” Risher says. “I’ve had young boys come and say to me, ‘I’ve always found books kind of intimidating, but this feels like a gadget because it’s something I can play with.’”

Another advantage to e-readers, which can be often overlooked, is that the font sizes easily increase, making a big difference for students without proper eyewear.

Worldreader mostly distributes books on Amazon Kindles, because they work well outside of the U.S. and because of Risher’s history with the company. The organization recently began venturing beyond e-readers and onto feature phones, through an e-book app created by developer biNu.

Are e-readers a game-changing technology for students in the developing world? Let us know what impact you think technology could have on the developing world.

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