"We believe every child should own a hundred books by the age of five. In South Africa, that means giving 600 million free books to children who could never afford to buy them. Every day we lose, more children grow up unable to read and write well, and to enjoy the worlds that books open up. Every one of us can help to give lots of free books to very young children. Most importantly, these books should be: new, African stories; with characters they recognise; in languages they speak; beautiful enough to love for a lifetime. There are two sides to getting new, better books into children's hands: 1. Book creation: writing, illustration and design, guided by an editor (Output: print and digital files than anyone can download and share); 2. Book distribution: printing, delivering and handing out to children and parents (This includes reading on mobile phones). Book Dash creates books. We support others in distributing them to children. Our book-creation process is where our name comes from: a Book Dash is a single day when volunteer teams of skilled creative professionals come together to create new children's storybooks in just 12 hours. Each team comprises a writer, an illustrator, and a designer. The teams have twelve hours to create one book per team. We provide expert editors, tech support, a great venue, great food and lots of coffee." (Page 3-4)