Book-ownership among South African children is shockingly low – 58% of households don’t own a single leisure book (SABDC, 2016) – and it has lead to equally low literacy levels throughout school and into adulthood. Illiteracy carries a huge cost to the economy (Gustafasson, 2010) and reputable, worldwide studies show that improving access to books for low-income children is a low-cost, high impact way of addressing the problem, but traditional publishing models aren’t designed to create affordable books for all
Book Dash aims to flood the country with books to address South Africa’s illiteracy crisis. We achieve this through our innovative events, known as a Book Dash, that brings together designers, writers, illustrators and editors of the highest quality to produce uniquely South African story books in the space of 12 hours. With this being a volunteer run initiative it eliminates almost all of the publishing costs which allows us, with the help of our partners, to distribute these books into the homes of under-served communities. Working with dedicated partners we translate, print and get these books directly to children and parents across South Africa through various distribution channels.
Our innovative publishing model allows us to print our books at just R15 a copy without compromising on quality. All of our books are made using an open license, that maximises the reach of our books, by allowing anyone anywhere to access our books. Our online library gives access to all of our books as PDF ebooks, as well as PDF print-ready files and audiobooks where they are available.Alternatively our books can be read using our Android app available on google play!
Book Dash have distributed over 3,000,000 books through our dedicated distribution channel. We partner with organisations working with Early Childhood Development centers mostly in rural areas. This way we can ensure our books are making it into the hands of those that need them most!
Since its inception, Book Dash has received recognition for both our innovative book creation model, and the social impact of the work we do, here are some of our recent achievements:
‘Innovation in early education’ global scale-up award 2023 - Book Dash selected as one of three winners of Theirworld‘s “Innovation in Early Education Awards to support scale up!
Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2023 - Book Dash was invited to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. On the 6th and 7th of March 2023, we showed off our unique publishing approach to the world at the 60th edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy.
World Literacy Summit 2023 - We presented at the World Literacy Summit and were shortlisted for a World Literacy Award. Book Dash’s model for creating high-quality, relevant children’s books very quickly and cost-effectively is a world first.
ChangeX partnership - Book Dash has been identified as a replicable social innovation and including in various of their campaigns from South Africa, to Ukraine, Italy, Ireland and the USA, meaning others can replicate our work with startup funding provided by ChangeX.
Below is our Theory of Change model
Book Dash is a registered voluntary association, non-profit-organisation (145-694 NPO) and public-benefit organisation (PBO 930047958). We issue Section 18a tax-exempt certificates for bona fide donations. We are also a level 1 B-BBEE organisation.
