Ashoka
Kickstarting a Series of Social innovation Story Books for Young Children
Award-winning social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow Ken Banks, best known for developing FrontlineSMS, a mobile messaging platform used today by non-profits in over 190 countries around the world, is launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a new series of books that introduces children to concepts of social innovation, as well as geography and anthropology,using age-appropriate language and colorful illustrations.
Banks is adapting inspiring stories from case studies his book for university students interested in how innovators are solving complex social and environmental problems around the world: "Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation: International Case Studies and Practice.” This series of children’s books will make them accessible to a much younger audience, introducing children at an early age to elements of problem solving and social change, nurturing their changemaker potential - all valuable skills in later life.
The books will be aimed at children around 6 or 7 years of age and are designed to “open a child's eyes to a whole new world of exploration as they learn how other children around the world live, and discover stories of heroic innovators and entrepreneurs working on problems in far flung places that help children develop and thrive,” Banks said.
Told through the eyes of Maddie and Ollie, brother and sister characters based on my own twins, each book takes the reader to a different part of the world to learn about places other children live, and the people and projects helping them and their communities overcome their problems so they can develop and thrive.
Questions at the end of each book take children deeper into the story, drawing out their thoughts and interpretations and challenging them to think about some of the people, places and events they've just discovered. And further information on the real-world projects and places are provided to help you take their curiosity and interest as far as they want to take it.
Funds raised from the Kickstarter campaign will cover project management and administrative costs, story development, an illustrator to draw the book pages, an editor/proof reader, the cost of color printing, the cost of fulfilling the rewards and, finally, the remainder for a little social media-based marketing and PR.