Bloom
MLC VANGUARD | Created by SIL LEAD, Inc.
Let's grow a library! The free Bloom easy book creation software is the only tool available for creating linguistically-correct decodable and leveled reading materials. Bloom enables local experts in all language communities to grow libraries.
4,500,000 Lives Impacted
Bloom’s target population are smaller, marginalized ethnolinguistic communities who have few or no reading materials in their own language. Our vision for Bloom is that every child will have sufficient appropriate reading materials in their own languages to open up the joy and power of reading. Bloom is contributing to this goal by empowering local communities to write or adapt books in their own local language. The vast array of books created and adapted in hundreds of marginalized languages in the Bloom Library is a clear marker of progress towards this.
Bloom’s primary direct beneficiaries are the children and adults who get access to learning and reading materials in a language they understand well. The community members who engage in materials development benefit as well, as they learn how to provide equitable education solutions to their communities and country. Bloom creates supplementary reading materials at the community level, but has also been used by a number of NGOs and governments to develop teaching and learning materials to be used in schools for larger, regional populations.
The Innovation
Bloom is a free software package that makes it easy for speakers of any language to create books, or to translate existing books into their language. Rather than having to depend on technicians from outside their community or undergo extensive training, speakers of local languages can quickly learn to use Bloom to create literature that they want their children to read. Bloom is the only tool available for creating pedagogically and linguistically-correct decodable and leveled reading materials.
The tool is easy to use by people with limited experience with technology and is an offline tool, thus making a live Internet connection unnecessary. It supports any of the world’s 7,000+ languages. With Bloom, users can author new books, translate existing books, and create new versions of more than 7,500 titles in over 380 languages. Tools for adding audio and video make Bloom an all-in-one tool to create born-accessible books for visually impaired and Deaf readers with the ability to create inclusive materials in any language. A new section of the Bloom Library is dedicated to COVID-19 books to support local language communities with access to important health and safety messages.
About SIL LEAD
SIL LEAD's vision is that all language communities around the world have a voice in their own development. SIL LEAD helps communities to use their own language to improve their quality of life. We assist civil society, schools, and government education departments to establish a foundation of learning and literacy in a language that students speak at home and to gradually build competence in a national or international language. We apply technology innovation to empower local authors to create their own books. Since its founding in 2011, SIL LEAD has supported over 40 projects in more than 25 countries and 100 languages. SIL LEAD’s largest projects are, or have been, in USAID Early Grade Reading (EGR) programs in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nepal, Philippines, Senegal, and Uganda.
Implemented in
Bloom has been implemented in 28 Countries in East Asia & Pacific, 36 Countries in Europe & Central Asia, 29 countries Latin America & Caribbean, 14 Countries Middle East & North Africa, 2 Countries in North America, 6 Countries in South Asia, and 41Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
