Kathryn Ritchie is the Founder and CEO of KR Strategy. KR Strategy is an international strategy execution ﬁrm.

Kathryn is the architect of the firm’s intellectual capital and international growth strategy. Kathryn was previously in management at Macquarie Bank, and then a niche-consulting firm, Corporate Vision. Her areas of expertise lie in igniting the potential of companies and enabling organizations to clarify and prioritize objectives and successfully execute their agreed strategy. Kathryn earned an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and holds an applied science bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology.

Kathryn Ritchie, Chair

Kelly is the Vice President of Content Acquisitions at Ingram Content Group.

He joined Ingram 6 years ago from Bowker, where he was previously VP of Publisher Services. He has a deep knowledge of the publishing landscape, which he brings to help NABU navigate the publishing space. Kelly has long been involved in Rwanda and is involved in coffee production in the country. Kelly has a Bachelor of Science in scientific and technical writing from Northern Arizona University.

Kelly Gallagher, Treasurer

Damien has been a Partner at Goldman Sachs for almost 20 years, and is head of the FICC Execution Services division in New York. He and his wife Tina have been long time supporters of children’s charities, including the Global Fund for Children and War Child in the UK. Damien is Australian and has a bachelor’s of business from Bond University.

Damien Vanderwilt 

Deanna Lane is a management consultant and board director with a career spanning more than 20 years in senior executive roles advising on strategy, business development and fundraising, stakeholder engagement, business planning and alignment of purpose with key messaging.

She has deep sector experience with top tier law and accounting firms: global brands including KPMG, Reuters, Citibank, ASX, Time Warner, Thomson Legal & Regulatory, Park Hyatt Sydney, Conde Nast and CHANEL. Industry associations/ professional education institutes and universities: IFSA (now Financial Services Council), Australian Institute of Company Directors, Institute of Actuaries, Faculty of Economics & Business – University of Sydney, Australian Institute of Management, Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Human Genetics Society of Australasia. Arts organisations: Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Bell Shakespeare, Australian String Quartet.

Deanna Lane

Kweku Mandela is the grandson of the former South African President and anti-apartheid revolutionary, Nelson Mandela. He is the Founder of Based On A True Story, a leading TV and film production company, and a partner in Mandela Media. In 2009, he co-founded the non-profit Africa Rising with Ndaba Mandela. Africa Rising seeks to contribute to the development of the African continent, and to change the perception of Africa by the global community through publications, film, media and social interaction. Kweku attended the APA International Film School in Sydney, Australia. Kweku was born in Transkei, South Africa, and grew up in the US, only to return to his homeland in 1993.

Kweku Mandela

Isabel Sheinman is currently pursuing her MBA at New York University.

A co-creator and Board Member of NABU and for six years she served as the Director of Strategy and Development for the organization. Isabel is a co-Founder of the Roadmaps Festival, a humanitarian and cultural festival in NYC, and serves on the advisory councils of arts organizations No Longer Empty and BYkids. Her areas of expertise lie in strategic partnership development and community mobilization. Isabel holds a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Georgetown University.

Isabel Sheinman

Diana Cohn has worked on environmental, economic, and global justice issues as a teacher, media activist, and as an advisor and program director to grantmaking institutions with social change philanthropy missions. During her 13 year tenure as the Executive Director she was responsible for the Foundation’s Social Imagination/Arts and Social Change, Creativity and Education programs and for oversight of its Corporate Accountability; Dignity, Freedom & Solidarity; Food & Democracy; and Renewal & Resilience Programs. She was an active member of Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers in Education as well as Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. She serves on the Advisory Committee for Voice of Witness, and previously served on the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Visual Understandings in Education, and the Food Craft Institute Board of Directors.

Diana is a Certified Co-Active coach and works with non-profit leaders and cultural creatives. Diana is also an award-winning children’s book author. Her books include, Si Se Puede! Yes We Can!, Mr. Goethe’s Garden, The Bee Tree, and Crane Boy. Her first book, Dream Carver was adapted into a bilingual musical puppet show produced by the LA based company, Swazzle.

Diana Cohn

Tanyella Allison is co-creator and Executive Director of NABU.

Prior to NABU, Tanyella served as Executive Director of Artists for Peace and Justice, where she established a school for 3,000 students in one of the poorest communities in Haiti. In 2010 she helped to launch the social enterprise Giveacar in the UK generating new revenue streams for local charities. She started her career at the Campaign for Female Education. Tanyella is the recipient of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award, an International Literacy Association 30 Under 30 Leader, an Echoing Green Fellow, and one of Forbes 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2009, with a major in political science.

Tanyella Allison 

Sashi Valtz

Accelerating Literacy Through Access to Mother Tongue Books

When children can read in their local language first, they grow in confidence, and literacy levels shoot up. By offering training for writers and illustrators, we create original local language books that support children in learning how to read. Nabu.org is our free reading app that distributes our children’s books to millions of readers globally. To accelerate the mission, we develop reading programs in underserved communities in which the children learn to read on our reading app by reading our NABU children's books.

The NABU app is available anywhere in the world. If you have access to a smartphone or tablet device, you can download our app from the 

How do I get access to the NABU App?

The NABU app is, and always will be, open and free for anyone to access. 

Are there any costs for accessing the NABU App?

Yes! The NABU app is optimized for low bandwidth environments. If you are reading from our mobile app, the books you download while you are connected to the internet become available in your My Books section when you are offline, and you can read as often as you'd like.

My area doesn’t have Internet. Can I use the NABU App?

NABU does not provide or sell hardware. However, as long as you have an smartphone device or tablet, you can access the app. In some countries, we partner with device manufacturers who sell hardware to our users at low cost.  Contact us for more information.

Do you sell devices?

We are adding new titles and languages all the time! Our growing digital collection currently has high-quality books in English, French, Haitian Creole, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Romanian, Ukrainian, Pashto, Dari, Tagalog, and Lingala. We will be adding new languages to our programs as we continue to scale.

What languages are available on the NABU App?

Currently, we have over 2,000 books available for enjoyment on the app. Our collection is always growing as we create and acquire new content.

How many books are available on the NABU App?

Generally, no. Through our publishing network of local writers and illustrators we create original high-quality levelled and decodable readers that are curated to local needs. We do translate some of the best titles from local authors into English for wider enjoyment.

Does NABU translate books?

Yes! You can donate your digital content to the network and make it accessible to readers in any one or all countries, by assigning us a license to distribute your work. We accept high-quality content for all ages, and you can send us digital files in virtually any format. Contact us to donate your content.

Can I donate my books to NABU?

Yes! We are currently accepting applications for writer workshops in Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and other languages on our roadmap. If you are an organization with a venue, access to 10-20 windows laptops, ability to gather to 20+ participants (they do not have to be trained writers) and a small budget to cover hard costs, please reach out to us.

Can I run a writer workshop in my community?

Together, we will eradicate illiteracy by 2030.

We are a passionate team and community who believe that access to literacy is a foundational right. 


A child needs access to 160 mother tongue reading books at the early grades. We train local artists to publish high quality books in mother tongue languages.


Content is useless without distribution. We have developed the NABU multilingual kids book app, the best reading app for low bandwidth environments, to provide free access to books.


Literacy requires children to be actively reading everyday. We link reading behavior to in-app reward, and invest in local reading programs.

Annual Report

Form 990

Tanyella co-founded NABU in 2013, soon after completing her studies at Cambridge University in England. She was formerly Executive Director at Artists for Peace and Justice, and worked at the Campaign for Female Education. She was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017, and is a recipient of the esteemed Echoing Green Fellowship.

Tanyella Allison

Taniya works with NABU’s teams across New York, Africa and Haiti to develop strategies and partnerships that ensure efficiency and sustainability as the organization scales. Taniya is an Australian Lawyer, and worked in international refugee litigation before joining the founding team in 2015. Taniya holds a Masters Degree in International Law and Development from the University of Melbourne.

Taniya Benedict

Michael is an artist, practicing in the fields of design and architecture. Michael brings an array of eclectic skills and experience as NABU’s Creative Director, building the organization’s visual and artistic identity. He joined Nabu in early 2019, after working as a designer and architect for Ai Weiwei.

Michael Ross

Colleen Furman

Chris Barr

An accomplished social entrepreneur and business school graduate, Amos drives the growth and engagement of our readership. Leading the team in Rwanda, Amos is developing a model to scale to other countries in the East and Central African region. Before joining the NABU team in 2018, Amos co-founded and managed a professional counselling service in Kigali.

Amos Furaha

Nicki Pezzulo

Marina is NABU’s Bookkeeper, and also supports the team with general office management and events. Marina believes in a world where all children can read. She joined the Nabu team in 2017 after several years working in the corporate book-keeping sector.

Marina Mihajlova

Jessica is responsible for all activities related to the procurement of funds for NABU organisation. She is the primary grant writer and manages donor and partner relations. Previously she worked as a freelance grant writer for non-profits in Africa and Latin American focusing on refugee and migrant rights, period poverty and conservation. Jessica strives to make the world a better place and has dedicated her personal and professional career to sustaining the efforts of non-profits globally.

Jessica Laing

Lavinia Choremi

Norvie Veracruz

Beryl is a communication strategist with over seven years’ experience in the media industry. She is a content developer and writer with strong knowledge of the local, regional, and international media landscape. She has written numerous articles focusing on education, youth, and health matters in the East African region. Beryl holds a BA in Communication from Daystar University. She is pursuing her Masters at the Aga Khan University GSMC.

Beryl Oywer

Cristina Istrate

Philippe oversees partnerships and acquisitions for our programs. Before joining NABU, Philippe worked as the Admissions and Communications Assistant at Kepler as well as the District Manager at Babylon Health Rwanda. Philippe holds a Bachelor of Arts Management with a concentration in Logistics and Operations from Southern New Hampshire University.

Philippe Nkwakuzi

Mauro Daez

Clarisse is responsible for the management, coordination and supervision of our programs in Rwanda. She joined Nabu in 2018 after teaching English and Kinyarwanda to children in under-privileged communities. Clarisse holds a Bachelor of Communications & Public Relations from the University of Rwanda.

Clarisse Iradukunda

Kate Wanjira

Omu Camus

Monica Grecu

David Acree

Françoise is driven by the prospect of bringing books to millions of Haitian children. Trained in Library Sciences at Columbia University, she has been a champion of reading in Haiti and the Caribbean region. Before joining NABU in 2014, she was the Director of the Haitian National Library for thirty years.

Françoise Thybulle

About

Mother tongue books are one of the most cost-effective interventions in increasing literacy.

Result in stronger parental engagement in children’s education

Provide a bridge to reading in English, and other languages

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

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.

Our Team

Board of Directors

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