Reading app that distributes stories in mother tongue languages, helping to improve children's literacy rates.
Schmidt Futures Prize, TheirWorld, UiPath Foundation, Imbuto Foundation, Save The Children, Partners in Health, The Aga Khan Foundation East Africa (AKF), Zanmi Lasante and Summits Education, Globe Telecom, UNICEF Australia, OvidiuRo
Literacy is a prerequisite for eradicating poverty, yet globally there is a severe shortage of local language books at the early grade levels. As a result, 250M children are leaving school without being able to read, rendering them extremely vulnerable to social and economic exploitation.
NABU's solution is to make children's books free, and to champion mother tongue stories. Their vision is to build an inclusive, diverse, and community-centric global and local storytelling platform. 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, NABU creates original local language books that support children in learning how to read. NABU.org is a free reading app that can distribute children's books to millions of readers globally.
NABU is a low-bandwidth reading app for mobile devices for people in underserved communities. The app is made available as an offline experience where connectivity is unavailable. The solution is also working to ensure integration features such as alt text and audio functionality to assist children with disabilities and remove the barrier of illiterate caregivers from participating in shared literacy experiences. In communities where connectivity is low and there is poor cell phone penetration, NABU works with telecommunication companies and governments to ensure that these communities are reached. NABU also provides print books when necessary.
Secondary markets to expand into are Romani, Indigenous Australia, Pashto and Dari and Portuguese-speaking regions.
