A digital reading app and mother tongue publishing platform, NABU has in partnership with HP launched a creative lab to empower and impact the Rwandan youths and artistic community. Located at the Kigali Public Library, the lab was inaugurated on Wednesday, May 11 in the presence of the ambassador of Israel to Rwanda, Ron Adam among other high-level dignitaries. The lab was initiated as part of NABU’s mission to solve the global literacy problem by providing books for children in their mother tongue languages, and especially reaching the last mile using electronic devices in communities where digital penetration is still lower. In the past two years, data shows, smartphone penetration has increased by 30 percent. “For us, this is a momentous opportunity to bring children mother tongue books to children and families on the devices that they already have in their pockets,” stressed Tanyella Evans, the CEO and co-founder of NABU. Explaining the genesis of the initiative, Evans revealed that they were looking to creating a space that could ensure local readers, writers and illustrators are not left behind by the pace of technology. “How do we empower local systems to ensure the pipeline content for children in their mother tongue languages? How do we build capacity for local artists and trainers? How do we equip these phenomenally talented artists with state of the art devices?” she cited, adding that they came up with the creative lab solution. NABU is the major publisher of children Kinyarwanda books and the most popular reading platform in Rwanda. It focuses on books of children of ten years and less, because this is the age when the child’s brain is forming. Commenting on the partnership, Vileshen moodley, the head of HP East and Central African corridor expressed optimism for the newly launched creative lab. “We are honored to take part in the creation of this foundational institute that aims at eradicating the digital divide in our societies, so as to help and empower creators share their valuable artistic compositions,” he said. Located at Kigali Public Library, the creative lab is the first of its kind to be opened by NABU as more are to be unveiled in Philippines and Miami in the United States. In their future plans, NABU aims at publishing 400 books at the end of this year and will globally train 200 artists and illustrators in world class digital illustration workshops. After launching NABU reading platform, in only one year, the platform scaled up from 100,000 readers to 1.1 million readers. NABU was founded in New York in the year 2013 and opened its offices in Kigali two years later. It has a bigger mission to solve the global literacy crisis so that every child can read and rise to their full potential. Disrupting the cycle of poverty, they leverage technology to publish children’s books for free on digital platforms in mother tongue languages. To view future partnership efforts with HP on delivering digital equity to communities through the power of mother tongue literacy.
