With four days left on the clock, Happs Development (link in Dutch) still needs to raise over € 70.000 of their € 79.000 Kickstarter goal. Quite daunting indeed, but still we’d like to take the time and explain the importance of their work.
We often forget words aren’t easy. Society takes language for granted, but soms kids have a hard time learning how to read. In an increasingly digital landscape, it’s hard to keep them motivated using traditional exercises.
Having suffered from dyslexia himself, co-founder Hannes Hauwaert experienced the psychological impact these problems can have on kids. Deciding to turn his weakness into his strength, his team created Karaton (link in Dutch), a fantasy game world slash educational platform backed by academic knowledge, where reading exercise meets fun.
Thousands of Belgian and Dutch children have been battling their reading problems on the islands of Karaton already. To bust out of their local shell and expand their mission on a global scale, Happs took to Kickstarter to ask for help.
Releasing Karaton in English isn’t just a matter of simple translation: different languages present different reading problems so all the exercises will have to be rebuilt from scratch. To ensure the same academic background as the original version, Happs enlisted the help of Kimberly Green, professor at University of Kentucky.
So please: if you know of any parents, speech therapists or schools that could be helped with a trip to Karaton, tell them about this project! Even though this campaign may fail, the passionate dev team have one thing in common with the kids they are helping: they’ll never give up.