Storybooks as Nonformal Learning

• In Event: Innovative approaches in humanitarian contexts: Using nonformal, play-based learning to reach young children in crisis

Proposal

The average length of protracted refugee situations is 26 years. During that time, formal education is often political and intermittent, so the importance of nonformal learning increases exponentially. In this context, the books children read can both show them their physical world reflected back at them, as well as give them access to ideas and worlds outside a camp’s walls.
This session will highlight Room to Read’s work creating storybooks for nonformal learning with the Ahlan Simsim project in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Since 2003, Room to Read has been working with local authors, illustrators, editors, and designers to develop nearly 2,000 storybooks. We applied this expertise to develop 13 pre-primary storybooks featuring Ahlan Simsim characters, as well as incorporating 15 key themes from IRC’s Preschool Healing Classrooms framework. The books needed to assist children with one of the project’s goals: to learn to identify their emotions and explore coping strategies, and they needed to be set in both familiar and inspiring environments.
Creation of engaging, high-quality titles within the parameters of this nonformal learning initiative posed a unique challenge. Authors and illustrators needed not only to learn about and be sensitive to difficult contexts, but to address both preschool content and emotional themes within great stories that did not feel overly didactic. Incorporating critical project and background into workshops, in addition to the work of writing and illustrating itself, required flexibility, communication, and an openness from all stakeholders to understand many points of view.
This presentation will explore the challenges and successes from the Ahlan Simsim storybook development process, as a replicable collaboration model for creating content for nonformal learning with multiple stakeholders.

Authors

• Janet Pagliuca, Illustrator and Designer, Room to Read

• Alicia Berger, Global Children’s Book Publisher, Room to Read