To help support young people served by early childhood development teachers in countries across East Africa, We Give Books has joined forces with Tiger Aspect Productions and Puffin Books, the creators and publisher of the new Tinga Tinga Tales book series.

Together, we’re donating 20,000 brand-new Tinga Tinga Tales books to children served by teachers trained as part of the free Pearson Teacher Education Programme.

Each teacher who participates in the Programme will receive a classroom set of 30 Tinga Tinga Tales titles. These newly trained teachers will then go back to their own schools and train up to five other teachers who will also receive classroom sets of books.

Mission

The Pearson Teacher Education Programme in East Africa provides early childhood educators the literacy, numeracy, and early childhood development skills training they need to improve the lives of the young people they work with each day.

There are no better stories to share with these teachers and their students than those that comprise the new Tinga Tinga Tales book series.

Tinga Tinga Tales is based on traditional African animal folktales passed from generation to generation. The look of the show is inspired by the striking Tingatinga art of Tanzania. To create Tinga Tinga Tales, Tiger Aspect productions has created, set up and trained the first fully-equipped animation studio in Nairobi, Kenya employing local designers, writers, animators, and musicians and Tingatinga artists from Dar es Salaam.

Tiger Aspect Productions has transformed these stories and images into a stunning CBeebies TV series for three- to six-year-olds, a range of books produced by Puffin, and merchandise administered by Classic Media. Every key commercial partner of Tinga Tinga Tales will contribute to the education and empowerment of African children in an individual way.

In fact, Tiger Aspect Production will redirect 50% of its net profits from Tinga Tinga Tales back into children’s education schemes in East Africa – an effort that includes their personal engagement in the Pearson Teacher Education Programme.

Impact

In addition to supplying Tinga Tinga Tales books, The Pearson Teacher Education Programme in East Africa is hosting literacy training courses with an experienced educationalist, based on two Tinga Tinga Tales stories - Why Elephant Has a Trunk and Why Monkey Swings in Trees.

During these sessions, teachers gain valuable insight into engaging young learners around literacy and cognitive skills. The hands-on training will incorporate interactive reading, play, songs, dance, and shared reading activities.

Once a teacher has gone through the training, he or she will be given a classroom set of thirty Tinga Tinga Tales books. These newly trained teachers will then go back to their own schools and train up to five other teachers who will also receive classroom sets of books.

Goal

This year, We Give Books will be providing copies of Tinga Tinga Tales to young people whose teachers have been served by the Pearson Teacher Education Programme. Because they’ll in turn be sharing what they’ve learned with their peers, we aim to donate 20,000 books in total as a result.

Find out more about Tinga Tinga Tales, Click Here