A free app called Akuru Fili is teaching young children Dhivehi through games and stories. It was developed as a community service by Roam Dhuniye, a business owned by Ibrahim Afrah, according to the app's website and his Facebook profile.
The app is free, with no ads, no subscriptions and no accounts. The developer says it will stay that way.
What children can do
The app's website lists 16 activities, including:
Thaana letters and fili
finding words and building words
counting, adding and taking away
colours and memory matching
tracing letters with a finger
finishing sentences and picture puzzles
illustrated stories
Tools for parents
A parent menu sits behind a question for grown-ups. From there, parents can:
add each child with their own avatar and stars
set a daily screen-time limit for each child
record their own voice saying each letter
read the stories aloud, up to 30 seconds a page
Children then hear the parent's recorded voice in the letter games and stories. A child can turn the reading voice on or off.
Privacy
The privacy policy says the mobile app collects no personal information and has no analytics. Children's names, stars and recordings stay on the device and are not uploaded.
The website version also keeps these on the device, but it uses Google Analytics to count visits. The policy says analytics never receives children's names, stars or recordings.
How to get it
The app is available in three ways:
on the web at akurufili.com
on Android through Google Play
on iPhone and iPad as a beta through Apple's TestFlight
The developer says the app also works offline after it has downloaded its content. Feedback can be sent on WhatsApp to +960 796-8676.