The Anasoma project was a pilot project conducted by Worldreader, in partnership with AMKA-Space for Women’s Creativity, a Non-Governmental Organization operating in Kenya. AMKA, founded in 1999, is an organization that focuses on issues around women rights and women empowerment. Under the directorship of Ms. Lydia Gaitirira, the organization has over the years conducted projects aimed at positively impacting women in the community. Among the core thematic areas of AMKA’s work are: Economic Empowerment, Gender and Governance, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building, Health and Creative Expression. Anasoma which means he or she reads, is an initiative whose main aim is to promote gender equality through digital reading. The project which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was implemented from February 2017 to March 2018 in Kenya. The partnership between AMKA and Worldreader sought to carry out two key components of the Anasoma project namely:
Anasoma Writing Contest 2017.
Anasoma Book Review.
The Anasoma National Writing Contest ran from April 2017 to July 2017. It created an opportunity for women and men writers in Kenya to submit pitches under the theme “Women Empowerment”. Ultimately, the final five winners were awarded in a ceremony and had their manuscripts published both in print and on the Worldreader Mobile Application
The aim of the project as a whole was to improve the Worldreader library by introducing new content that challenges women’s traditional roles in the society that can positively influence gender social norms and stereotypes. Worldreader envisages that its research on the barriers and drivers of women readership and the introduction and testing of the new content will finally inform the development of an outreach strategy for raising awareness and advocacy towards increasing attention on the importance of increasing access to digital reading.