NABU is a tech-enabled publisher of multilingual children’s books. We create culturally responsive, mother-tongue stories more efficiently and at a scale never achieved before.

Building a bridge to equality, one mother tongue story at a time

NABU is solving the global literacy crisis so that every child can read and rise to their full potential. Our vision is to provide every child with equitable access to literacy by 2030.

Accelerating Literacy Through Access to Mother Tongue Books

Mother tongue books are one of the most cost-effective interventions in increasing literacy, yet 40% of children globally do not have access to educational materials in a language they speak or understand. Increased access to culturally relevant, mother tongue books directly promotes higher reading engagement, leading to higher literacy scores.

Specifically, research shows mother tongue books:

• Increase a child’s motivation to read

• Result in stronger parental engagement in children’s education

• Provide an essential bridge to reading in English, and other national languages

Help us to ensure that every child has free access to the essential books that they need to learn to read.

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Every child with equitable access to literacy by 2030

Globally, 250M school-aged children cannot read. According to the World Bank, higher literacy rates are associated with greater health, economic growth, and employment at the societal level. Early childhood literacy is critical to eradicating poverty, yet globally there is a severe shortage of books in mother tongue languages.

Guided by the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, NABU exists to address a root cause of many of the world’s greatest societal challenges — illiteracy. We are building an inclusive, diverse, and widely accessible platform to make early grade level story books available to the 250M children most in need.

Education is a fundamental human right. HP Inc. is proud to partner with NABU in supporting local illustrators and authors to increase relevant content creation and book production, ensuring children globally have access to enriching resources and content they need in their native language. HP creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. We focus on advancing Sustainable Impact, taking bold and comprehensive steps to drive climate action, protect human rights and accelerate digital equity backed with some of the most comprehensive goals in our industry. Partnering with organizations like NABU helps us deliver on our goal to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030. Learn more at www.hp.com/sustainableimpact.

With smartphone usage set to triple over the next 5 years, NABU is committed to making children’s books accessible to every child in the world by 2030. NABU’s diverse partnerships with government, education partners, and other nonprofit organizations support our efforts eradicating illiteracy for good.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is the world’s leading children’s charity, and has been since 1946.

Every day, UNICEF helps children realise their full potential by providing access to clean water, life-saving vaccines, quality education and health care. UNICEF works to ensure every child is safe and protected from harm and is always there during times of emergency.

Alongside its partners, UNICEF works with families, communities and local organisations in more than 190 countries to protect and advocate for children and young people. UNICEF does this by leveraging highly sophisticated infrastructure, economies of scale, and working in collaboration with local in-country partners to deliver for every child, no matter what.

At UNICEF Australia, we’re supporting UNICEF’s global ambition while ensuring every child in need, here in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region, is healthy, educated and safe.

Bloomberg Philanthropies works to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people by focusing on five key areas: the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health.

Encompassing all of Mike Bloomberg’s giving, Bloomberg Philanthropies includes his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works with mayors in cities around the world.

NABU partnered up with the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) on a special adaption of a COVID-19 Health Collection book. This book addresses the anxieties and fears that may arise among children, parents, and caregivers during the pandemic. This is collaboration came about after a study conducted by AKF in Kenya, finding that children feel that life won’t be the same. The book seeks to open up the conversation for a joint solution between parents and their children. The Aga Khan Foundation East Africa (AKF EA) mission is to assist the poorest and most marginalized in society, with a special focus on women, girls, children, and the youth so that they can achieve a level of self-reliance and improved quality of life.

Partners

“I do not own a TV, I prefer reading over watching television” -Jeanette

Jeanette is a volunteer Teacher at a local government school in Kenya. Jeanette is extremely passionate about helping children and being a positive role model for them. Jeanette actively exposes her students to opportunities that build on their skills beyond school work. Jeanette recently launched a book club at Kileleshwa Primary School and has adopted NABU into her reading sessions. She has started a WhatsApp group with local parents where they discuss the books on the app and how parents are influential in ensuring their children are reading beyond curriculum material.

Due to the lack of devices available, Jeanette empowers each child with a turn to read a book in front of the class during her classroom’s reading hour, this allows all students to listen and learn from the stories. Jeanette believes that consistent exposure to reading will not only improve their reading skills but also their confidence.

The WhatsApp group has been growing and thriving since its inception and has since been a glue holding this class and community together. We love hearing stories like this and seeing the powerful impact that reading can have on a community.

We are working with local and global markets to learn how we can get more devices in the hands of children in Kenya to help lighten the burden of their biggest obstacle on the road to eradicating illiteracy. Will you join us? 

On the Ground in Kenya, an Inspiring Story of a Teacher’s Book Club!

International Women’s Day is a worldwide celebration of women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. This day also serves as a rallying cry for greater gender equality. Worldwide, there is considerable activity as people come together to celebrate women’s accomplishments or to advocate for women’s equality.

, is celebrated annually on March 8th, and is one of the most important days of the year to honor women’s accomplishments, increase awareness of women’s equality, advocate for gender parity as soon as possible, and raise funds for female-focused charities.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2022 is:

“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

, the theme for 2022 is about “recognizing the contribution of women and girls all over the world who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response to build a more sustainable future for all.” On this day, NABU is honoring and recognizing all women, and given the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, we are highlighting the journey of our CEO, Tanyella Evans.

NABU was founded in New York City on the 11th of June, 2013, and in June of the following year, NABU co-creator Tanyella Evans was awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship. A prestigious fellowship that helps to accelerate early-stage social ventures that have the potential for world-changing impact, this was a turning point for NABU. The fellowship provided further funding and a community of support to help Tanyella and her co-creators build and grow NABU. NABU’s latest achievement at the end of 2021, was reaching 1 Million Users on our low bandwidth reading 

 Multilingual kids book app, which currently distributes over 2,000 original stories in mother tongue languages. 1 Million users is not just a number, it represents each and every individual child and family member who has experienced the magic of the stories shared on the NABU platform.

Celebrate International Women’s Day with us! Use your own platforms to speak up for and celebrate the women around you in your life who are leading the charge on making a difference one day at a time for a better tomorrow!

International Women's Day: Tanyella Evans

The week of 7th of February, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health week.

The theme for this year was “Growing Together”, one that deeply resonates with NABU’s mission.

A child’s ability to read and write, to develop basic cognitive skills which also links to the growth of their core personalities, their emotional intelligence and social skills and what we are also currently collectively experiencing today with all that is happening around the black lives matter movement and the asian hate crimes – the relationship with their own cultures is so pivotal to develop healthy and positive relationships with other cultures.

Children’s books are the bricks that are needed to help build the bridge into the future and create strong, healthy and caring citizens of the world.

Research has shown that ‘Children who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged’ [1]. Without books children are robbed of the opportunity to show up in this world as contributors and participate in their authentic self in this rapidly changing environment. 

There are many ways a child can gain a build and gain confidence with books! Through a story book, children can learn how to recognise what is happening inside them as they use the power of empathy with the characters. This builds confidence through discovering and gaining perspective in different contexts and situations ! Books also play a healing role by creating a safe space for children who experience trauma in their early environment, life challenges and difficulties. Through a book, they can explore their emotions and vulnerability and learn how to self regulate their emotions.

In NABU culturally relevant story books and learning about their own culture and different cultures, children learn to connect and better understand themselves, people around them and gain greater understanding of their sense of belonging. They become more aware of the richness and vastness of their own culture which opens their eyes to other cultures and their potential in the world.

Mother tongue and native-language instruction is the most cost-effective intervention in early-grade literacy and helps children reap the benefits of education. Our mission is to eradicate illiteracy by delivering mother tongue books into the hands of children all over the world! 

Share the gift of reading through one of our stories with a child in your life by Downloading the NABU app, or purchasing one of our beautiful books:

 is a story showcasing the magic of a young child’s imagination. This level 2 Kinyarwanda book is perfect for early readers as it features consistent vocabulary and introduces children to a plot line with multiple characters and emotions, foundational to children achieving basic literacy skills.

 is a story filled with the wonders of immersing ourselves in mother nature and our environment. This level 3 Kinyarwanda collection book is the perfect introduction to storybooks and includes larger vocabulary words, morals or lessons, multiple characters and is foundational to children achieving basic literacy skills. This level 3 Kinyarwanda collection book is the perfect introduction to independent reading and includes more complex content and multiple characters with thoughts, dialogue and feeling, foundational to children achieving basic literacy skills.

 co-authored by top model Jessica Michibata.

The story explores how racism and xenophobia affects Asian-American children. Inspired by the experiences of Jessica Michibata growing up, and now seeing her daughter grow up as Asian American. We hope that this book will help children who encounter racism to not feel alone!

https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/mental-wellbeing-reading-and-writing/

Kidd, D., & Castano, E. (2019). Reading Literary Fiction and Theory of Mind: Three Preregistered Replications and Extensions of Kidd and Castano (2013). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10(4), 522–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618775410

Vezzali, L., Stathi, S., Giovannini, D., Capozza, D., & Trifiletti, E. (2015). The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice. 

Children’s Mental Health Week – “Growing together”

Meet Ingabire D’amour, who is a single mother and lives in Masoro. Masoro is located just about an hour north of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Ingabire is currently raising two lovely girls, her daughter Akaliza Melodia and her niece Teta Queen.

Ingabire, who is very passionate about education, often visits the Masoro Learning Centre. During one of such visits she met a NABU reading ambassador, who introduced her to the reading application. The ambassador helped her to install the app and gave her tips on how to continuously engage her young ones with it. As the only parent to two young girls, she was excited to learn that she can access many digital books through her phone without making many trips to the community library.

“A NABU representative told me that there is a reading application for children, and they helped me to install it on my phone. I was happy to know that because before,I was anxious that my children wouldn’t like reading while it was a culture I grew up with.” -Igambire

Ingabire who has been using the NABU App with her children for a while now notes that she has seen a shift in their attitude towards reading as well as their academic performance.

“Before my children encountered the App, they were barely interested in reading, but now anytime they come from school, they ask me for my phone to continue reading where they left off,” she added.

Ingabire, who engages in small-scale farming, adds that before she did not spend a lot of time with the children because she did not have any activities they could do together. But now that she has the NABU App on her phone, she sets aside time to read with her young ones.

“NABU brought me closer to my children when I read the books or when they tell me what they read on the app, which makes me feel engaged with their daily life and education. I would like my neighbors or people to know the importance of teaching children how to read when they are still young because it is beneficial,” she said

The two girls are full of life. They are quite adventurous, playful and have smiles that will melt your heart. Akaliza Melodia, who is eight year old, would like to be a leader when she grows up. She tells us that she wants to help people in her community and be a good example to other children.

“I like reading NABU stories with my mother because it makes reading more enjoyable, but I also read by myself sometimes. Out of all the stories I read on the NABU app, the story of Matwi interests me more because he respects his parents,” 

Teta Queen on the other hand is nine years old and her dream is to be a doctor. She wants to help people by treating them when they are sick. Her favourite book is “Furaha Saves the Farm” on the NABU app because Furaha helps her grandfather bring back bees to his dry farm.

“When I am with my colleagues, I share different stories that I read on the NABU app, and when I share them, It helps me memorize,” Teta said.


The NABU team visited Ingabire, Akaliza and Teta at home and shared beautiful moments.

Together with our partnership with HP we have reached over 1.2 million children so far and together we are developing the HP Creative Lab in Rwanda, where over 200 African authors and illustrators will be trained each year to create beautiful high-quality early grade stories in mother tongue languages, providing an essential bridge to literacy!

Mother of two's visit to the library leads to an encounter with NABU

Award Winning Non-Profit NABU Partners with HP and Super Model Jessica Michibata to Publish New Children’s Storybook on Anti-Xenophobia

NABU, an award-winning non-profit with a mission to solve the global literacy crisis, has collaborated with HP and Jessica Michibata, a Japanese and Argentinian supermodel to develop a story about racial tolerance in light of growing hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. The story is inspired by Jessica’s own childhood and features a young Japanese-American girl named Rachel, who leads us on a journey of self acceptance and belonging as she navigates bullying at her school.

 promotes the power of self-compassion and true belonging through finding real value and strength within. In partnership with HP, the I Love Being Me! print book is now available for purchase globally on online book retailers, to support NABU’s ongoing mission with proceeds going to support efforts to distribute these stories globally. NABU is encouraging anyone to submit a translation in their own mother tongue through their website.

“It’s an honor to be a part of this project. I have a 4-year-old daughter so this opportunity could not have come to me at a better time. Growing up I just wanted to blend in, and I wish I had someone when I was younger to tell me that It was ok to be me.”

In a world where many children do not see themselves reflected in the pages of their books, NABU leverages books like 

 to address the diversity gap in publishing that impacts a child’s health and cognitive development. Only 11 percent of children’s books in the past 25 years have featured any kind of multicultural content, even though over 50 percent of children in the US identify as non-white.

 ,the second in the HP partnership series, with 

 being the first, is currently available in English, Japanese and Mandarin, and will be distributed digitally for free on NABU’s recently updated App – “NABU: Multilingual books for children” to children in developing countries where books are incredibly scarce and desired. HP is partnering with NABU on this series as part of its goal to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030. It’s also one of the ways HP is responding to the growing anti-Asian hate crimes globally.

NABU is a non-profit organization, with a mission to solve the global literacy crisis so that every child can read and rise to their full potential. We disrupt the cycle of poverty by leveraging technology to publish children’s books for free on digital platforms in mother tongue languages.

Jessica Michibata is an international model, author, and spokesperson. Having graced the covers of hundreds of magazines in Asia as Japan’s top model, she has been featured in campaigns for Evian and Shiseido. She has supported UNHCR, Just Giving, NABU, and other nonprofit organizations throughout thee career. Jessica now leads a bicontinental lifestyle between her hometown Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Hawai with her family.

HP Inc. is a technology company that believes one thoughtful idea has the power to change the world. Its product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers, and 3D printing solutions helps bring these ideas to life. Visit 

Tokyo Art Office is an art consultancy firm inspiring a new generation of art collectors.

NABU Publishes “I Love Being Me!” A must read story for every child about belonging and self love.

In partnership with HP and Award Winning Non-Profit Girl Rising, NABU
publishes a new book that explores universal themes of gender roles.

NABU today announced the availability of a new book 

 The book was created with award-winning girls education non-profit, 

 and, HP, as part of HP’s goal to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030. Go Stella Go! explores the universal themes of gender roles and stereotypes, highlighting the critical role that boys play in acknowledging gender-based discrimination.

NABU’s focus is on creating books that uplift children around the world and focus on stories with characters developing resilience, combating gender discrimination, and empowering girls to educate their communities. Go Stella Go! is the first in a series of collaborations with HP and Girl Rising. With this partnership, the mission aims to jumpstart a movement to support the creation of locally- created mother tongue books highlighting key issues for 250 million underserved children. Forty percent of children worldwide do not have access to books in their native language, even though native-language instruction is the most cost-effective intervention in early-grade literacy, helping children to reap the benefits of education.

 is now available in print for purchase globally on online book retailers. Proceeds of the book go to supporting NABU’s ongoing mission of distributing these stories globally. NABU is encouraging anyone to submit a translation in their own mother tongue through their website.

Go Stella Go! Is currently available in English and Swahili and will be distributed digitally for free on NABU’s recently updated App – “NABU: Multilingual books for children” to children in developing countries where books are incredibly scarce and desired.

NABU “Go Stella Go!” Print books now available for Holidays!

I used to be afraid of answering questions in class, but since reading on NABU I have become more confident. I love reading in Kinyarwanda, especially funny stories, like when the rabbit goes to steal wheat. I can now understand Kinyarwanda much better, and can share my ideas fearlessly!

Belize, age 10

Reading on NABU helps me understand my local language and also helps me learn new languages like English. I am always excited to share stories with my mom after reading and she helps me understand. NABU helps me boost my memory because I love memorizing the story!

Building a bridge to equality, one mother tongue story at a time

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