Books for Haiti's Bright Beginnings Fund
On October 29th, Jounen Entènasyonal Kreyòl (International Kreyòl Day), the Mansbach Family established the first international award dedicated to honoring high-quality picture books created by authors and illustrators of Haitian heritage and written in Haitian Kreyòl for young children ages 0-6. The award, named "The Mansbach Prize," seeks to strengthen early literacy, support culturally relevant publishing, and increase access to books that reflect the language and lived experiences of Haitian children.
Founder Sara Mansbach envisions “a world in which every Haitian child enters school having access to high-quality books that reflect their language, culture, and identity.” The mission of The Mansbach Prize is to promote early childhood literacy and language development by recognizing, celebrating, and distributing outstanding Haitian Kreyòl picture books for young children.
The initiative is rooted in research demonstrating the importance of early language development and mother-tongue literacy during the critical prebirth-to-age-five period. By recognizing exceptional Haitian Kreyòl authors, illustrators, and picture books – and by distributing winning titles to schools, libraries, and community organizations throughout Haiti and the Haitian diaspora - the award will help build a stronger foundation for educational success and lifelong learning.
Goals
- Empower parents as the primary early educators starting from prebirth to pre-kindergarten development.
- Capitalize on the key developmental window from prenatal through age five to accelerate brain and language growth.
- Provide high-quality picture books to create a joy of reading and build critical early readiness skills for literacy and beyond.
About the International Book Award
The Books for Haiti’s Bright Beginnings Fund at The Boston Foundation has been established to administer The Mansbach Prize. For this first edition, the jury will consider books that were published from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2026. The submission notifications will be published during the first months of 2027. The winners will be announced on May 18th, 2027, Haitian Flag Day.
About the Fund Directors
The Mansbach Family Foundation created the Books for Haiti's Bright Beginnings Fund at the Boston Foundation. Sara Mansbach, a Family Literacy Specialist, earned her doctorate in Adult Learning and Reading from Boston University. She has devoted her career to helping underserved students gain independence through literacy, working as a college professor, consultant, school district coordinator, media center manager, and nonprofit executive director. In 2009, at a Rotary leaders’ meeting in Haiti, she found a new life purpose: building book centers in rural villages where children had never seen a single picture book. She founded and led Partners in Literacy Haiti from 2011 to 2024, directed teams in Haiti 14 times, and saw firsthand how Kreyòl books can transform young lives. Her work has earned many humanitarian awards, yet her Haitian colleagues, parents, and children remain the most meaningful part of her career. Sara believes that reading is the bridge to equality, and that Haitians hold the best expertise to reach that goal. She partners with Haitians on several current projects, including Kreyòl and Beyond, the multilingual Haitian book collective she co-founded in 2024, and will continue to support prenatal-to-preschool Haitian literacy initiatives.
Fund advisor Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes is a teacher, teacher trainer, administrator, and researcher in the field of bilingual education and language development. She studied psychology at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico in San German, Creole Linguistics at Indiana University in Bloomington, and Language Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge. Josiane is one of the founding members of the Haitian Studies Association. Her research is about the type of thinking and language skills students from diverse cultural backgrounds bring to learning situations. Her scholarly publications center on connecting classrooms work to funds of knowledge students bring from their home and culture.Donate to the Books for Haiti’s Bright Beginnings Fund
Gift Instructions
Thank you for your interest. You may make credit card donations using the form on this page. For other types of gifts:
To give from a Donor Advised Fund, please recommend a grant to "Boston Foundation, Inc." with "Books for Haiti's Bright Beginnings Fund" in the grant purpose field.
To donate by check, make your check payable to "Boston Foundation, Inc." with "Books for Haiti's Bright Beginnings Fund" in the memo field and mail to:
The Boston Foundation
PO Box 843027
Boston, MA 02284-3027
For wire or bank transfers, or to inquire about transferring other types of assets, please click here for a PDF of the fund gift instructions or contact our Fund Administration office at (617) 338-2637 or email fundadmin@tbf.org.
For more information:
To sign up for more information or to receive updates from the Fund, please email Pritimoun_enfo@tbf.org.