The Boy Who Never Gave Up

The boy who became Saint Yared grew up in the ancient kingdom of Axum. According to legend, he struggled as a student, just as this story shows, but eventually triumphed and went on to invent Ethiopia's system of musical notation. His work drew on local traditions and the church concept of the Holy Trinity, while his hymns had four parts based on the four seasons of the year, winter, summer, spring, and autumn. Hundreds of years before European composers developed a seven-note system of writing music, Yared wrote music using dashes, curves, and dots to represent ten different notes.Ready Set Go Books, an Open Hearts Big Dreams Project, is focused on increasing the literacy rate in Ethiopia through giving readers books with stories in their heart languages, full of colorful illustrations with Ethiopian settings and details. Profits from books sales will be used to create, print, and distribute more Ready Set Go Books to kids in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country. Ethiopia's population is 44% children, ages 0-14 (43 million out of 97 million total). Only 5.5% of children attend pre-school or kindergarten, and the adult literacy rate is 49%. Our books are based on wise Ethiopian sayings that often rhyme in Amharic. If an adult says the first half, many children can chant the second half. Sometimes the meaning of these sayings is clear. Sometimes it has to be puzzled out and argued over. But sayings and idioms and proverbs help people express truths and beliefs in unusual ways. Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund (OHBD) is a 501(3)(c) not for profit organization that believes the chance to dream big dreams should not depend on where in the world you are born. Our focus is to support nonprofit organizations and their programs that provide literacy, K-12 education, and leadership as well as that support the parents and communities where the kids live, in Ethiopia