Our African children’s book on coronavirus available in 5 languages

Op augustus 13, 2020 - Nieuws

Our FREE African children's book, originally developed for children in Kenya and Tanzania is now, next to English, Kiswahili and Dutch, also available in Chichewa, local language in Malawi and Chishona, local language Zimbabwe.

FREE download
Scroll down to download the books. The size of the booklets are small so they can easily be share via WhatsApp, other social media applications or via email.

In co-production with
In co-production with Aisha & friends and Jan & Ko | creative in education.

Why did we develop this booklet?
While our chairman Monique was in lockdown and quarantine in Kenya from March 14 until May 16, she saw and heard from various contacts, that there was a lack of informative child-friendly booklets about coronavirus in which children in Tanzania and Kenya could recognise themselves. How do you educate young children about the corona-crisis? The virus has changed our lives in a drastic and radical way, additionally there is a lot of uncertainty. It is a very tensive and indistinct moment in our lives, especially for children.

So our Monique decided that she wanted to make this available for African children and reached out to Els van Hemert and Mieke Linssen, of ‘Jan & Ko | creative in education’, who helped to create a Dutch children’s book about coronavirus. Monique asked them if they would be willing to develop such a book for African children. They responded very exited.

Els and Mieke immediately said yes. Els started writing and Mieke started drawing, because we did not want to make a translation of the Dutch booklet, but we wanted to create an adapted story in which children in Kenya and Tanzania could identify. Everything in close consultation with our Monique in Kenya, together with local partners in Kenya and Tanzania. And after three weeks, this booklet is the result of a great collaboration at a great distance.

The booklet became a big succes. It was widely shared via social media and a lot of people started to downpload te book. Some shared it in a digital way, others printed it and shared it as a booklet. But it was not only popular in Tanzania and Kenya, also in Uganda where they speak English and Kiswahili, and in Malawi and Zimbabwe. Here the national language is not English or Kiswahili, and so there was a demand for a Chichewa and Chishona version. Which was developed as well.

We hope that our booklet will help parents and/or carers in Africa to inform the children about corona in a child-friendly and attractive way.

This book is based on the Dutch book ‘Het verhaal van Noor en het coronavirus’, developed by Monique Kerpen, in collaboration with ‘Hoera kindercentra’.