Enrich children with knowledge:
Support Our Mission to Create Better Learning Opportunities in Serbia

My name is Miodrag Mićić and I am the director of Multisoft, a pioneer in electronic publishing and the highest quality producer of multimedia educational software in the Serbian language for over two decades. Our programs, for which we have spent over 400,000 working hours, have won the highest professional awards in the country and abroad.

I am writing to you today to introduce you to our educational project "Gift Children with Knowledge" and to ask for your support.

Our project aims to increase digital literacy among children in Serbia and promote quality education through a series of educational programs designed for children of all ages. By supporting our project, you will help us to provide access to quality education for children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to benefit from it.

Our Story and Vision: 25 Years of Fighting for Modern Education in Serbia

Thanks to our own capital, dedication and effort, we have developed 42 multimedia educational programs for primary and secondary school students and 50 for teachers. Each of these programs, which is the result of several months (from 5 to 19 months) of work by programmers, professors and artists, are the best of their kind in Serbia.

Before the era of social media, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other online resources, we wrote and incorporated more than 9,500 pages of text, created or processed over 43,000 illustrations, 7,000 minutes of audio and 500 minutes of video into our digital encyclopedias and learning software. Additionally, we developed over 11,000 quiz questions, and produced around 500 animations and simulations. All of this content was presented in our top-quality multimedia editions!

We have gone above and beyond in our efforts to make our educational software engaging and enjoyable for children. To this end, we have recorded actors for 15 programs aimed at young children, providing them with all the necessary sound support in their work, without relying on their parents' help. These actors have brought extra entertainment to learning through their voices and acting. In fact, we have recorded over 19,000 sound recordings for these programs, which required a significant amount of time and effort. But we believe that this investment was necessary to ensure that our programs are of the highest quality and are truly child-friendly.

However, despite our participation in symposiums, conferences, and fairs, as well as positive reviews in professional and popular magazines, we have encountered insurmountable challenges in selling our software in Serbia.

For many years now, Serbia has been investing a huge portion of its education budget in salaries, so that primary education often suffers from insufficient teacher training, resulting in a large number of students who are functionally illiterate - even one in three (on the basis of international PISA tests).

Additionally, pirated copies of original programs are still widely used in Serbia, even in schools, indicating a lack of awareness about the importance of legal software use and support for programmers who invest great efforts in developing quality software.

Despite such a business climate and even though most of our educational programs were not profitable, we continued to maintain and develop them, using profits from our other commercial projects. This way, over the course of two decades, we were able to support and enhance our educational programs without jeopardizing the company's business success.

Since 2009, we have been focusing on creating programs for educators abroad, mostly in German language, while also not forgetting to create the same programs in Serbian language. These programs provide additional resources and tools to help teachers better engage with their students and create more effective learning environments.

The best result of our collaboration with foreign partners is the creation of  "My Book Machine" program, which was awarded as the Best Educational Tool in 2015 at the “Didacta“ fair in Hanover, Germany.

It is important to note that all our programs are up-to-date and relevant. In fact, during the pandemic, the lack of interest in modern education by the wider community, except for the long-standing habit of users to exclusively use free software, was confirmed.

In the spring of 2020, in the midst of a three-year crisis in which the government did not offer any support to our company, Multisoft once again demonstrated its social responsibility by allowing free use of our children's programs for a limited time period. Despite a lack of additional promotion, this initiative resulted in thousands of copies of our several programs, totaling 33,000 copies valued at over $270,000.

Today in Serbia, in addition to the long-standing issue of not recognizing copyright and insisting on free software, globalization presents an even greater challenge. Our programmers are increasingly finding more profitable and secure jobs in foreign companies that offer better working conditions and job security.

As a result, in the future, there will be even more of a shortage of new educational programs in Serbian, especially those with Serbian actors that would help children better acquaint themselves with digital technology.

This clearly indicates the need for quality educational software in Serbian and the fact that our programs still play a significant role in children's education.

"Give children knowledge" Project

Therefore, we are launching the "Gift Children Knowledge" project, in which we would provide free download and use of our most popular program.

I invite you to take advantage of a unique opportunity to help make "Ce De Bukvar," the best educational program in the Serbian language of all time (and a representative of Serbia and Montenegro at the first World Summit on the Information Society organized by the UN), available for free use on every computer used by users who speak Serbian or a similar language.

If we successfully raise more than the required amount for Ce De Bukvar, Multisoft will release even more of their multimedia educational programs. This will include 15 programs designed for younger children, as well as encyclopedias aimed at upper elementary and high school students.

Our ultimate goal is to make high-quality educational materials accessible to as many people as possible, and we believe that by expanding our offerings, we can help achieve that goal.

By supporting this initiative, you will contribute to the development of education and the increase of digital literacy in children, and you or your company will be clearly marked within the program and recognized by hundreds of thousands of users in the future as a popularizer and promoter of education.

“Ce De Bukvar“ (the first multimedia primer in the Serbian)

According to all local computer magazines, "Ce De Bukvar" is the best educational program in Serbia of all time. Since its first version and award at the International Book Fair in Belgrade in 1998, it has remained the most popular program and, despite piracy of older versions, continues to be the best-selling program. It represented Serbia and Montenegro at the first World Summit of the Informatics Society from 2003 to 2005 organized by United Nations.

With over 1,000 illustrations and 2,000 sound recordings, the program covers every letter (Cyrillic and Latin) and numbers (up to 10) in an imaginative and child-friendly way. It includes interesting stories enriched with illustrations, recitations, rhymes, karaoke music, ecological lessons, videos that teach writing, coloring books, puzzles, and writing and arithmetic exercises to test children's acquired knowledge.

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology, educational worker associations, our diaspora and religious community, computer and educational magazines, and many others confirm that we have found the optimal formula for children's learning.

Program has undergone several updates since its first release, mainly to fix some functionalities and ensure compatibility with newer versions of Windows operating system. The latest version of the program is compatible with both older and newer versions of Windows. However, there is no version of the program for iOS computers, as they are not popular in Serbia due to their high cost.

Reviews of "Ce De Bukvar"

The program has received many positive reviews in professional journals, including even in graduate theses by pedagogy students focusing on the use of "Ce De Bukvar". Let's mention only some parts from the reviews (you can read more about the program and reviews in a separate attachment):

“It was assessed that this unique multimedia project can usefully serve as an auxiliary teaching tool in the realization of the content of learning the alphabet, the basics of mathematics, logic, as well as computer and aesthetic culture.“ - Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia, 1998

„The first multimedia CD edition of the primer pleased, it seems, our entire editorial staff… Eight months spent working on this project, numerous collaborators on certain segments indicate a team that knows the rules in this business well.“ - PC Press, 1998

„The user interface is simplified to such an extent that a child will very quickly learn to use the program completely independently without anyone's help… The technical features of the program are to be commended... Ce De Bukvar deserves a clean five and enjoys all our recommendations.“ - Computer World, 1998

Target User Group for the Programs

Please refer to the attached document for the target groups and potential number of users for all our programs. However, we would like to emphasize that "Ce De Bukvar" has an initial target group of 350,000 users, with an additional 70,000 potential users every year, as it is intended for children aged 3-7 years. If we include children of Serbian origin abroad, we think that the numbers can be increased by at least a third.

Program prices and their potential target groups for our most popular programs
* all prices and target groups are in the attachment

Fundraising Goal for the Project

Currently, the price of "Ce De Bukvar" is $12. Therefore, we believe that $100,000 would be a reasonable amount to remove all user authorization protections, allowing for the free and unlimited download of the program indefinitely.

But, we won't be disappointed if we only manage to raise half of our target amount. Even if we reach $50,000, we'll consider the campaign a success and make sure that Ce De Bukvar remains free for all future generations of children.

As an added incentive, if we exceed our goal and raise $120,000, we will commit to creating an Android and iOS version of "Ce De Bukvar," which will be compatible with most smartphones and tablets, and will be available for free download within a year.

Unlocking Opportunities: Additional Goals With Extra Funding

Furthermore, for every $10,000 raised beyond the $120,000 threshold, we will release an additional free multimedia program following the same process as "Ce De Bukvar". We will prioritize the most popular programs for release. In that case, our next free program will be “Vesela matematika 1" (Happy Math 1), after that bilingual dictionary “My First Serbian Dictionary - Moj prvi engleski rečnik" etc.

The order of the potential release of the program depending on the amount of funds collected
* the order of the programs by their popularity is given in the attachment

Also, we would like to note that we will continue to provide support for all programs distributed for free and will update them as needed to ensure compatibility with the Windows operating system.

Support our project: Benefits of Donating and Plans After Successful Fundraising

We welcome donations from both individuals and companies, from both large and small donors, as we appreciate all forms of support. It is important to us that our donors are recognized for their generosity, and therefore, all donors will be listed as sponsors in our program.

Those who wish to contribute the entire amount are welcome to do so, while those who wish to make smaller donations will also be accommodated proportionally, with their contributions being recognized on the program's website as well as within the multimedia program itself. Regardless of whether the donor is an individual or a company, all donors will be acknowledged in the program and receive recognition for their support.

We are sure that, thanks to your support, we will be able to collect the initial amount of money that will allow us to start editing the program immediately. Within a month we will publish a new, free version of "Ce De Bukvar". If luck smiles on us and we raise more than the initial amount, we will release a few more, or all our free programs, which will depend on the total amount of money raised. Free versions of the program will be posted on Multisoft's website, but we are sure that many satisfied users will be happy to share download links on social networks.

Also, after the program is updated with the list of donors, companies that have contributed will have the opportunity to post a link for downloading the program on their website, if they so desire. We believe that this will be a great way to showcase their philanthropy and commitment to improving education for children.

We want to emphasize that we will synchronize the release of the free programs with a press conference where numerous magazines will inform their readers about this selfless act on your part.

If we fail to raise enough funds to realize this project, Multisoft will be forced to postpone the release of the free version of “Ce De Bukvar“. Nonetheless, we will remain grateful to all donors who wanted to support us in this process. In that case, we will consider all options available to us to continue raising funds and implementing the project in the future. We will keep our donors regularly updated on all developments and news.

Invest in the Future: Your Donation Can Make a Difference in Children's Lives

Therefore, help us to give children knowledge appropriate to the century in which they were born!

Investing in education and continuously modernizing teaching methods must be an imperative for every society in the 21st century, and digital literacy is the key to the success of our children, the future young people capable of working in the digital age. Only by improving the quality of education we can change our country for the better.

In Serbia, which does not invest enough in digital literacy for its children, this project is therefore even more important.

Please help make our significant contribution to education available to as many children as possible - "Gift Knowledge to Children!"

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Miodrag Mićić, CEO of Multisoft, Srbia

Please find attached more detailed texts and links that explain this entire project, our company, multimedia products and their target groups, the most important prizes, excerpts from reviews, as well as our most important socially responsible activities with which, along with the fight against piracy, we popularized science, digital literacy and knowledge suitable for the 21st century.

Complete PROJECT - Help Us Achieve Our Mission: Support Our Project Today! (multisoft.rs)

About Multisoft - About Multisoft

Our greatest successes - The Most Important Successes (multisoft.rs)

Excerpts from reviews and awards - The Most Important Reviews (multisoft.rs)

Our programs for students - https://www.multisoft.rs/free_download/ms_za_djake.pdf

Our programs for teachers - https://www.multisoft.rs/free_download/ms_za_skole.pdf