The world's biggest book publisher is putting its money where its mouth is.
The International Publishers Association has announced five projects in 26 African countries that will receive a total of $290,000 from the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund, the New York Times reports.
The fund, created in May 2019 with an endowment of $800,000, is intended to spur innovation in the publishing industry in Africa, where government-funded textbooks are often of poor quality and where many children lack access to reading material.
"We can see some reflection of those conversations in today's announcement, referencing not only African publishing being'steeply tilted toward textbooks' but a need to look at accessibility concerns for readers who struggle with impairments," Porter Anderson writes at Publishers Weekly.
Among the projects receiving a grant are one that aims to get books into the hands of the blind in Uganda, another that plans to get celebrities and sports stars reading in schools and homes, and one that aims to make books available to girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
"As part of Dubai Cares support this year, we are directing fund financing toward reading for pleasure and accessibility, both being priorities with the power to unlock the literary landscape to everyone, regardless of level of education or ability," says the fund's leader, Bodour Al
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.