Four Illo Artists Working with Nonprofit Onebillion To Grow Their Educational Library!

Onebillion, is a nonprofit organization based in London. Their aim is to help millions of children around the world who are unable to read or write or who lack basic numeracy skills. They develop educational software for reading and numeracy in a child’s own language and then work with partners around the world to get our software into children’s hands.

Their website says it best: ‘Children are at the heart of everything we do. Particularly those who are most vulnerable, including children with special educational needs, refugees and girls and boys in remote areas. Despite more children attending school than ever, there are still persistent disparities in learning outcomes. We believe that radical, innovative initiatives must be chosen to address this issue. At Onebillion, we support the Sustainable Development Goals and are fully committed to giving all girls and boys the skills they need to unlock their individual talents.’

Illo was contacted by their editor Sarah George, who is currently developing their e-library and looking initially to expand their range of picture books and non-fiction. Sarah was particularly interested in finding up-and-coming artists, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds. The artists came up with some wonderful ideas to help diversify Onebillion‘s library. Their creations will be published across the world via their e-library and their work will reach those children in most need of brilliant books.

So here’s some of the work created by Zeynep Ozatalay, Rachel Horne, Jose Villamayor, and Mez Clark. Zeynep, as requested, created something simple yet effective, with nice repetition and a rather sweet ending, called “Splash.” Rachel create a book titled “I See” which tells a nice story of family and friends, following a disabled young girl meeting people along the way. José’s book titled “That’s Not My Hat!” is a bold, funny & very colorful story with different wild animals trying on a hat for size! And finally, Mez’s book “Esie is Happy”, it’s a tale of a cheeky elephant doing all the things that make her happy.