Spreading books and a love of reading across Ethiopia and Around the Globe
The chance to dream big dreams should NOT depend on where you are born. Books provide MIRRORS and WINDOWS.
Open Hearts Big Dreams is a Seattle-based organization dedicated to meeting the challenge of increasing literacy, inclusion, innovation readiness, and leadership skills in Ethiopia and beyond. We publish colorful, culturally appropriate books for youth with our OHBD-Ready Set Go imprint. We provide training and opportunities for Ethiopian youth and educators in person and online.
Since 2017, Open Hearts Big Dreams has been a grass roots independent 501(c)(3) organization providing a range of programs to empower youth, in Ethiopia and beyond, to transform their future.
Explore the Open Hearts Big Dreams flywheel and get involved
OHBD - Ready Set Go Books
Primary Literacy Project
Action: Creating, publishing, printing and distributing, OHBD Ready Set Go Books.
Goal: Help increase literacy by closing the gap of insufficient, colorful, mother tongue, early reader, children's books to practice reading.
Progress:
- Since 2017, we developed creative, translation and production teams to scale pilot efforts.
- We now have over 175 unique bilingual titles in 15 Ethiopian languages including Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali, Anuak, Dizin, as well as global languages including Kiswahili, Igbo, Arabic and French with more new books and more languages planned. All books sold fund the project.
- We developed our own local printing capacity in Ethiopia in 2021. Combined with efforts of collaborating organizations, we printed and distributed over 600,000 copies of our books in country in 12 local languages. We have Amharic, Afaan Oromo, and Tigrinua titles continuously available for purchase and donation in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia
Ready Set Go Books & Reading Rooms
No kid should go through their childhood without colorful, fun books to practice their reading skills and discover more about their world.
Looking forward: There are 4MM first graders in Ethiopia, so we still have A LOT of work to do.
With your help, our goal is to spread our locally printed OHBD-RSG books through reading rooms all across Ethiopia in the next 10 years.
OHBD - Ready Set Go Books
Primary Literacy Project
Action: Creating, publishing, printing and distributing, OHBD Ready Set Go Books.
Goal: Help increase literacy by closing the gap of insufficient, colorful, mother tongue, early reader, children's books to practice reading.
Progress:
- Since 2017, we developed creative, translation and production teams to scale pilot efforts.
- We now have over 175 unique bilingual titles in 15 Ethiopian languages including Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali, Anuak, Dizin, as well as global languages including Kiswahili, Igbo, Arabic and French with more new books and more languages planned. All books sold fund the project.
- We developed our own local printing capacity in Ethiopia in 2021. Combined with efforts of collaborating organizations, we printed and distributed over 600,000 copies of our books in country in 12 local languages. We have Amharic, Afaan Oromo, and Tigrinua titles continuously available for purchase and donation in Addis Ababa.
No kid should go through their childhood without colorful, fun books to practice their reading skills and discover more about their world.
Looking forward: There are 4MM first graders in Ethiopia, so we still have A LOT of work to do.
With your help, our goal is to spread our locally printed OHBD-RSG books through reading rooms all across Ethiopia in the next 10 years.
Ethiopia
Ready Set Go Books & Reading Rooms
Book Distribution
Reading Rooms
Team Members