Asia Foundation, MoneyGram Foundation and Seoul Metropolitan Government Partner to Publish Multilingual Storybooks in Korea
The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read! initiative is pleased to announce its partnership with the MoneyGram Foundation and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On August 31, the Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a year-long collaboration on joint project, “Multilingual Book Creation for Migrant Families in Korea” to support cultural and linguistic bridges to aid migrant communities. According to Korean Immigration Service Statistics, in 2016 there were over two million migrants living in Korea, approximately four percent of Korea’s total population.
In order to help fill an existing educational resource gap, children’s books will be written in Korean and translated into an additional ten migrant languages. The goal of this project is to create educational stories that will build inclusion among Korean and foreign-born populations. The storybooks will then be printed and distributed to families in Korea as well as made available via The Asia Foundation’s free Let’s Read! digital library, currently available in 14 languages at letsreadasia.org and via the Let’s Read! Android app on Google Play.
The Asia Foundation together with Seoul Metropolitan Government will host both a contest and workshop to facilitate the creation, translation, and publication of the new children’s books. Additionally, the project will include a book launch and several other community outreach events in order to reach as many migrant families as possible.
The Let’s Read! initiative draws on The Asia Foundation’s in-country capabilities, local partnerships, and technological expertise to empower communities to create, translate, and share high-quality, richly illustrated children’s books across Asia. Since 1954, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program donated printed books to thousands of under-resources educational institutions in 21 Asian countries. While print remains an effective means of delivering information in many parts of the developing world, e-books are quickly becoming a cost-effective, scalable model due to mobile technology’s increasing affordability.
Read more information about Let’s Read!
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