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Introduction

Kalimat Foundation is a not-for-profit entity based in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. Its activity is centred on the distribution of Arabic language children’s books for the normally sighted, and accessible Arabic language formats for the visually disabled. The organisation’s founder and chairperson is Bodour Al Qasimi, who amongst other leading designations in publishing, is president of the International Publishers Association (2021 - 2023) and founder and CEO of Kalimat Group, a multi-imprint publisher in the Emirates.

Objective, programmes and partnerships
Established in 2016, Kalimat Foundation’s driving objective is to encourage literacy and assert the right for children to read, regardless of circumstances. Two initiatives spearhead distribution strategy. Ara, which means ‘I see’ in Arabic, was launched in April 2017 to provide accessible book formats and promote awareness of visually disabled youth, supporting the objectives set in the 2013 Marrakesh VIP Treaty to ease access to published material for the blind, visually impaired and otherwise print disabled. In November 2018 a partnership agreement was signed between Kalimat Foundation and the Accessible Books Consortium to aid the production of ‘born accessible’ formats in Arabic. In February 2020, the foundation was shortlisted for the Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Award, under the initiative category. The other major programme, ‘Pledge a Library’, was launched in November 2017 with the goal of distributing books in Arabic to children fleeing conflict in the Middle East, many of whom have settled in migrant communities around the world. More recently the Pledge a Library campaign has extended into East and West Africa reaching Arabic speaking communities in the continent, as a result of partnership with Book Aid International in the United Kingdom.

By June 2021 more than 22,000 books are reported to have been distributed in 23 countries, constituting just under 9,000 with Ara and 12,500 under the Pledge a Library banner.