Join us in our mission to build a world of storytellers and diversify bookshelves.
Your support makes a lasting impact.
We aim to increase the representation in children’s and young adult books.
As a women of color led nonprofit based in Austin, we are dedicated to preserving and sharing the richness of South-Asian culture.
Our Mission:
Peerbagh aims to increase representation in children’s and YA books while providing valuable tools and resources for parents, educators, aspiring creatives, and you! By collaborating with foundation partners and other nonprofits, we actively revive storytelling forms, languages, and cultures that face the threat of extinction. Together, we can ensure that diverse stories and voices are celebrated and preserved for future generations.
If you would like to support our work as a corporate, please write to our CSR manager, Ashle Olivas here.
Support the mission
Your support makes the world more inclusive and creative!
What We Do:
- Representation: We actively work towards promoting diversity and inclusion in children’s and young adult literature. By amplifying South-Asian voices and experiences, we contribute to a more inclusive literary landscape.
- Playful Activity Toolkits and Books: We have developed engaging and interactive activity toolkits that allow parents and educators to showcase the vibrant tapestry of South-Asian culture. These toolkits provide hands-on experiences for children to explore and learn in a fun and immersive way.
- Creative Confidence and Storytelling Courses: Our courses and workshops empower educators, writers, and children with the necessary tools and frameworks to enhance their creative confidence and storytelling skills. By honing their abilities, they can become impactful storytellers.
How You Can Help:
- Donate: Your generous contributions directly support our programs and initiatives, helping us reach more children, educators, and aspiring creatives. Every donation makes a difference in fostering representation and preserving cultural heritage.
- Volunteer: Join our team of passionate individuals and contribute your skills and time to further our mission. Together, we can create a stronger impact and empower more storytellers.
- Spread the Word: Share our cause with your network and help us raise awareness about the importance of representation in literature and the preservation of South-Asian culture.
Join us today and be part of a movement that celebrates diversity, empowers storytellers, and enriches the lives of children and young adults. Together, we can create a more inclusive world.
Your donation helps us to:
- Encourage creative confidence in ALL: . Everyone has a story within them. We offer tools and frameworks that enable everyone to succeed creatively through our courses that marry storytelling with DEI practices to help us imagine a more inclusive world.
- Providing a Platform for Diverse Authors and Books: We are dedicated to promoting South-Asian authors through our interview series, Kitabi Qisse, and Likhawat. Your contribution offers these talented creatives a platform to reach schools, libraries, and a wider audience. By amplifying their voices, we foster a literary landscape that embraces diverse perspectives and experiences.
- Creating a StoryLab: We are actively working towards establishing a StoryLab—a creative space where authors and children can come together to unleash their imagination and create captivating stories. With your support, we can provide a nurturing environment that nurtures the storytellers of tomorrow.
- Publishing Audio Stories, Toolkits, and Books from Diverse Authors and Children: Peerbagh hosts three annual writing events, where we offer prizes, including audiostory publishing, to young children aged 6-14 years. Additionally, we publish activity-based books and toolkits that showcase diverse stories and promote South-Asian cultural themes. By publishing these works, we ensure that children see themselves and their lives accurately represented, fostering a sense of belonging and cultural pride.
- Supporting Educators: In a diverse student population where 54% of students in the US identify as diverse, less than 10% of curriculum books are written by authors of color. Moreover, close to 80% of teachers are not diverse. We collaborate with schools, libraries, and educators to provide tools and resources that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Through our LIVE course, the Blue Sky, we offer scholarships to educators, enabling them to create a more inclusive teaching environment.
- Reviving Old Storytelling Forms, Languages, and Scripts: With our program, Zubaani, we bring recognition to and host workshops for capacity building, focusing on older storytelling forms that are at risk of extinction. As the world loses one global language every two weeks, we strive to preserve the vast cultural knowledge and share it with our audience. Through partnerships with South-Asian universities and nonprofit organizations, we promote endangered scripts and languages, ensuring their survival for generations to come.
Your donation to Peerbagh directly contributes to these vital initiatives, fostering representation, preserving cultural heritage, and empowering storytellers of all backgrounds. Together, let’s create a world where diversity thrives, stories are cherished, and cultural knowledge is preserved for future generations.
