For 10 years, Book Dash has been on an epic mission to make sure more South African children fall in love with reading by creating and sharing free storybooks with kids!
South Africa (20 August 2024) — The stories and moments of joy we experienced as young readers have a way of staying with us no matter how many books we plough through in our lives.
The first storybooks we got to hold in our hands when they were so small, and the pages seemed so big will always be synonymous with the first times we held a new kind of magic. One where new adventures were created in our minds, new worlds entered ours, and new make-believe characters became as important as the real-life ones.
As many lifelong readers will understand, the thought of not having had the opportunity to experience those first stories is unimaginable. But for many South Africans, it’s also a striking reality.
Fortunately, there are many organisations working overtime to make sure that as many little South Africans as possible get the opportunity to fall in love with reading. And one of them is celebrating ten years of doing exactly that!
Book Dash is a non-profit that believes every child should own 100 books by the age of 5—a dream that began in 2014 when friends in the publishing industry gathered to put their skills together to create new African storybooks that would be distributed to children who otherwise wouldn’t have had much access to the world of stories. Soon, co-founders Arthur Attwell, Michelle Matthews and Tarryn-Anne Anderson registered the dream as an NPO and an exciting future of stories and joy lay ahead!
Over the years, Book Dash grew and grew, conquering many milestones like handing out 1 million books to children in 2020, creating over 128 original storybooks across eleven languages and enjoying their biggest print run earlier this year.
Needless to say, the 10 years have proved to be a real page-turner for all the best reasons.
How Book Dash Brings Stories and Joy to South African Children
Book Dash works through a unique publishing model. At different 12-hour events dubbed Book Dashes, volunteer creatives join forces to create unique storybooks to nourish young minds across a spectrum of age-appropriate topics.
Thereafter, the books can be enjoyed freely (you can find the library here), and hard copies are also distributed to children in different communities across South Africa. The most recent event took place on Saturday in Johannesburg.
To keep Book Dash alive and thriving, people can also purchase their storybooks to support the project’s future endeavours and hopefully, be a part of making the next 10 years as impactful as the first.
You can learn more about supporting Book Dash here.
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