GCompris Arabization Status

[Isam Bayazidi <isam at bayazidi dot net>]

Salam all..
 One of the best programs I know for kids of ages 4 to 10 is GCompris:
http://www.ofset.org/gcompris/

The great thing about GComptis is it's ability to be customized, as one 
can create boards for it, for instance we can add boards for it to teach 
things that are specific to arabs, such as Harakat, Hamza, Word Roots. 
Or Even religion related boards such as: Salat times, basics of Faith, 
ands Islam, etc..

I had been using Gcompris in a Kindergarten in Amman, Jordan for 4 
months now.. kids love it, they learned basic computing skills such as 
moving the mouse, making clicks, and pressing on the keyboard, and 
finding keys and so.. all this in very fun boards..

I worked in translating the interface of it.. PO can be found at:
http://cvs.gnome.org/lxr/source/gcompris/po/ar.po

The thing is that in order to have the GCompris to be more Arabic, more 
need to be done that just PO translation. As customization need to be 
made to different boards. for example:
- Arabic Audio for spelling lessons
- Changing Pictures and relations to things more familiar to Arab kids 
(for instance, a Tree is Related to a big star for most kids in the west 
because of it's reference to Christmas, while an Arab kid will not be 
able to figure out the relation between Tree and a Star, or Hanging 
Socks and presents)
- and more board specific changes.

I hoped that I will be able to complete all that. but I do not have the 
time for it. Maybe once I have kids I will do it (if it was not still 
done) to get my kids to enjoy it, because I am sure that they will 
(Don't tell anyone: I spent hours playing with it, I guess that the kid 
inside me is still alive)

Please if anyone is interested in such project step forward, I will be 
glad to assist in getting the initial stages done.

Yours
Isam Bayazidi