Hi, we’re Lilipad. We exist to make the world a little bit fairer.
Whether through the simple act of reading a story in their native language, or attending one of our storytelling workshops, we believe every child’s imagination has the potential to unlock real-world change. By providing access to diverse multilingual literature and creative educational experiences, we cultivate resilience, empathy, and confidence in children who experience social exclusion.
Our programs are designed not just to educate but to inspire young minds to envision a better future, one where they have agency to shape their own story.
The societal problem
We work with local socially-driven organisations to provide children’s libraries and educational workshops to children affected by social inequity (refugee and migrant children, children from low-income families, children living in isolated areas, etc.).
We seek to provide the necessary educational materials and build engaging educational experiences to promote the wellbeing of children and help them grow into empowered and self-confident adults.
The Lilipad intervention
Today, over 600 million children and teenagers are unable to reach the minimum proficiency in core educational subjects, despite two-thirds of them being enrolled at school (UNICEF).
This learning crisis is disproportionally affecting children in developing countries, refugee and migrant children and overall girls in particular and has devasting consequences on their future.
The change we seek to create
We believe in a world where every child has the power to shape their own story. We aim to achieve this by designing libraries and programs that can:
Improve access to quality reading material and improve reading engagement;
Foster a culture of lifelong learning and a sense of self-confidence;
Contribute to the emotional well-being of all children.
Our areas of work
Lilipad has two core hubs where the majority of our work is concentrated:
Berlin, where we dedicate our work to refugee and migrant children and where we opened 10 libraries.
Casablanca, where we focus on children subject to social exclusion - with a strong focus on stigmatised girls - and where we opened 2 libraries.
In addition, Lilipad contributed to the establishment of satellite libraries in Jinja, Marrakech and Paris. These particular libraries are run independently by our partners and Lilipad is mainly contributing in terms of new books and capacity building on a case-by-case basis.
What we do
1. We establish children’s libraries
A safe, inspiring, and warm spot where kids can access books and learning materials. We provide high-quality books in different languages that promote diversity, representation, and inclusion - and fun.
2. We provide reading educational experiences
We bring these spaces to life through workshops, events, and readings, to inspire, educate, inform, and engage. For many children, it’s a chance to meet other kids from different backgrounds and build crucial confidence in a social setting.
How we do it
First, we identify a local institution to partner with (a school, community centre, refugee accommodation, etc.). Second, our partner provides us with a space that we transform into a children’s multilingual library. Once our library is open, we usually start a long-term collaboration with our local partner and organise various educational workshops and reading programs for the children in their communities.
Lilipad has two working models and each determines how we work with our local partners:
These libraries represent our main working model in which Lilipad provides long-term support in the form of educational workshops and/or through the sponsoring of a Lilipad Librarian.
1. Core Libraries
These libraries are run independently by the partner organisation. Unlike our core libraries, Lilipad isn’t regularly involved in how the library is run, apart from the initial set-up and guidance.