Team up with NABU to give the gift of literacy to children! By taking the Build a Book challenge, you can help create one amazing, high-quality, culturally responsive mother tongue storybook for kids!

Tell your friends & family, post on social media, and share your love of reading!

That’s it! Fully created books are published and made available for free on the NABU.org app, which with daily use, increases literacy by 35%. Once you’ve completed and funded a book you will receive:

your profile on NABU’s digital landing page Wall of Fame

acknowledgment; (name + book on social media and newsletter)

access to exclusive offerings throughout the NABU community

Let’s change the world, one story at a time!

Did you know that around the world, 250M children are unable to read simply because they don’t have enough books in their mother tongue?

Team up with NABU to give the gift of literacy to children by creating your own personal fundraising campaign! By taking the Build a Book challenge, you can help create one amazing, high-quality, culturally responsive mother tongue storybook for kids!

Build a Book

NABU is excited to announce that applications are open now for our Summer 2023 Creative Fellowship in Miami! We are seeking storytellers and artists of Haitian heritage to help us create bilingual Haitian Creole children's books for children and families in Florida, and beyond. Our mission is to ensure inclusive, equitable literacy resources for all children, and we invite you to help us achieve it! As a Writing or Illustration Fellow at our Miami-based residential program, you'll collaborate with our international team, develop your artistic abilities, and contribute to your Haitian community. We're excited to work with you in achieving our vision of helping children to read and rise to their full potential!

Welcome to NABU. We’re so glad you are considering applying to become a Writing or Illustration Fellow at NABU. Our vision is a world where every child will have inclusive and equitable access to the resources they need to become literate, and we need you to help us achieve this goal.

For our 2023 Summer Creative Fellowship, we are calling on passionate and talented artists of Haitian heritage to help us meet the need for bilingual Haitian Creole children’s books, for children in Florida and beyond. The books that you create will be published on NABU’s free reading app, for anyone to download, anywhere in the world. The best work will also be selected for print publishing opportunities.

Through this residential program based out of our creative Lab in Miami, you will be exposed to our global creative team that has trained over 150 artists around the world. We will support you to take your artistic skills to a whole new level, whilst giving back to your Haitian community. We can’t wait to get started working with you!

We have Fellowships available for 10 illustrators of Haitian heritage, with some digital drawing experience. You will be required to provide your portfolio as part of your application, and we are looking for early career artists who want to develop their creative skills and expression. There is no language requirement for the Illustration Fellowship.

We also have Fellowships for 5 writers of Haitian heritage, who have some knowledge of spoken Haitian Creole, and preferably can write in Haitian Creole, though this is not a strict requirement to apply. We welcome aspiring storytellers with some writing experience, from all backgrounds. Students, teachers, parents, authors - anyone with a story to tell is welcome to apply.

A 12-week paid Fellowship, with a $2,000 stipend (minimum attendance requirements apply)

A creative space and state-of-the-art devices provided by HP at the NABU Creative Lab at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Centre in Miami

Curriculum and mentorship provided by Michael Ross, NABU Creative Director, as well as other members of NABU’s senior creative team

Major print and digital publishing opportunities available after the Fellowship for selected titles with NABU’s publishing partners

Your opportunity to be part of a mission to create authentic books for children and families in underserved mother tongue languages, increasing literacy by preserving and sharing culture

Become part of a global community of creators powering this mission


This is not a virtual program! The Fellowship runs in-person for 12 weeks from Thursday June 8th, with an end date on Thursday August 24th.

The Fellowship will take place at the NABU HP Creative Lab located inside the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center. There is a time commitment of 5 hours per week (two 2.5 hour sessions) including one mandatory class on Monday mornings and a working session on Thursday early afternoons. Fellows will be required to be in-person at our Miami Lab and there is a minimum attendance requirement to maintain your Fellowship.

The Lab will also be open from 9 am to 5 pm during the Fellowship for those that wish to come and use the devices or get more support from NABU's Program Manager.


By the end of the Fellowship, you will have found your artistic voice, and gained the skills required to publish world-class quality children’s books. In addition, as a cohort, together you will write and illustrate at least 30 chidlren’s books that are ready to be published by the end of the Fellowship! Each author will work on about six manuscripts, whereas illustrators will illustrate about three books each.

We aim to support your artistic development and authentic discovery, as well as helping you reach beyond the limits of what you thought possible! Immediately after the Fellowship, your books will be published on the NABU app, reaching millions of children around the world.

In addition, NABU does not limit learning and networking to solely in-house opportunities. We grant a number of community events and offer exposure for our Fellows to grow as they learn. And, our 

more opportunities. Your options don’t end with the cohort!

There’s a lot of work to do and we can’t wait to get started. Please follow the steps to complete the application you’d like to move forward with. If you have any questions, please contact 

, and we will make sure to get back to you within 24 hours to help with any inquiries.

NABU is creating a lot of new reading material for children, and we need all hands on deck!

Applications are due by Sunday May 21st, 2023, at 11.59pm EST.


, you’re taking your first step to helping eradicate illiteracy by 2030 with NABU.

Creative Fellowship

No matter how old you are, where you live, or whether or not you can give, you can help solve the global literacy crisis–and you can start right now.

Get Involved

Every act of support helps us get closer to achieving our mission. 

At NABU we have plenty to do and are always looking for a helping hand. Interested in volunteering for us? Click on the link below and let's work together!

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

NABU artists create original stories, as well as, curate, translate, adapt, and re-illustrate stories from the world's best children's book authors. Contributions from ABC Lab creators ensure a diverse and well-balanced book collection for children.

It costs NABU $2400 a year to educate a local artist within the ABC Lab.

In the lab, artists translate their artistic abilities from physical to digital. They receive:

World-class creative training from a team of directors who have worked with world-renowned artists and authors

Enhanced professional development to become a published author or illustrator

An opportunity to join NABU’s in-house creative team to develop children’s books across underserved languages and cultures

Creative skills that propel career development and increased income opportunities

When you sponsor an artist, you’ll receive updates on their journey to improve their skills and a copy of one of their completed books.

In NABU’s Authentic Book Creation (ABC) Lab, local creators are trained to write and illustrate books in mother tongue languages in regions where they do not exist, ensuring that every child has free access to the essential books that they need to learn to read.

Get Involved

Creative Fellowship

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Sponsor an Artist

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