Paleng – Place of Stories
Every Child a Reader
Paleng is a non-profit organisation that promotes and supports literacy acquisition in young Basotho children. Our dream is for every young, rural child to have access to books to read – picture storybooks in their mother tongue about their own lives and contexts, books that spark interest and joy, that speak to their intelligence, imagination, and sense of fun. We hope that our books will find children everywhere who will love them and keep them to read to their own children one day.
Who We Are
Our Origins: Founded in 2015, the Paleng Children’s Centre, a children’s library and play centre in rural Lesotho, was the beginning of the Paleng – Place of Stories journey. We now travel to other places and work in villages and Primary schools to hold Story Festivals which is our primary form of distribution.
Our Mission: Paleng strives to build and sustain a culture of reading in rural communities. We support literacy acquisition in young children by creating bilingual mother tongue/English books and giving them directly to children to take home, read, or be read to, and share with siblings, friends, neighbours. We do this primarily through our school- and village-based Story Festivals, but we also distribute books to our growing network of partners across Lesotho.
Our Vision: Our vision is a world in which every rural child has free access to books that support their right to be literate, enabling success at school and the chance to lead enriched, successful lives.
What We Do
Our Books
Story Festivals
Library Development
Watch this short clip about our Book Festivals to get a sense of what Paleng is all about.