The community social responsibility unit of QwertyWorks is glad to have been able to donate a total of 7,640 hardcopies of children's books in Tagalog & Cebuano that were co-developed by Touchbase (translation.com.ph), its Philippine language unit. Libreo.ph's latest batch of 3,650 books arrived in Catanduanes in February 2021.
1,500 children had fun
The #LetsReadPH community shared in a Facebook post last March 3, 2021 that Libreo's books reached children in Bato, Catanduanes who were affected by Super Typhoon Rolly (Goni). Through its partner, Educo Philippines, some 1,500 children aged 3-12 years old participated in an outreach activity which also involved giving out other kinds of donations as well as some singing and dancing activities.
About Libreo.ph
Libreo is the non-profit/CSR arm of QwertyWorks that prints and/or distributes children's books made primarily by Alamaklat, the charity book translation effort of QwertyWorks Touchbase. These books were created with the help of Pratham Books' Storyweaver, a digital publishing platform that allows Touchbase's own linguists to conceptualize, adapt and/or translate books for young readers in the Philippines. The objective of Libreo.ph is to instill the love of reading books among Filipino children, especially given that today's kids are constantly exposed to social media.
While Libreo.ph primarily publishes its books online through its website, it also prints these books for free, to be distributed directly by itself or through its volunteer-partners. Since it began in March 2018, Libreo has printed and distributed books to this tally:
2018-2019: 1,015 books
2019-2020: 2,975 books
2020-2021: 3,650 books
Many of the first few books that were printed out and distributed by Libreo landed in the hands of Filipino children in Barangay Day-care centers, which are run mostly by volunteers and organized under the Philippines' Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
All the organizations and partners involved in putting Libreo's books in Filipino children's hands do their initiatives free of charge and on their own time, without ties to or concessions with any political or commercial entity. Libreo's sole reward is in simply seeing the smile on the face of every Filipino child whenever they receive what could very well be the very first book that he or she will ever own.