In March, NABU partnered with EdTech East Africa to celebrate two globally recognized days that align closely with our mission; World Read Aloud Day and International Mother Language Day. This collaboration aimed to spotlight how technology and native languages can work together to transform literacy outcomes for children across Kenya.
As part of this campaign, NABU was featured on EdTech Mondays Kenya, a national platform that convenes education stakeholders to explore how digital solutions are reshaping learning across the continent. This visibility allowed NABU to share its unique, impact-driven model — a reading platform that delivers free children’s books in the multi-lingual languages kids speak at home.
What is EdTech Mondays, and Why Does it Matter?
EdTech Mondays is a monthly multimedia series powered by EdTech East Africa and supported by the Mastercard Foundation. It brings together policy makers, educators, entrepreneurs, and innovators to address critical questions in education technology and inclusion.
This platform plays an important role in raising awareness about how tools like NABU’s mobile reading app can support national education goals, particularly around foundational literacy and inclusive education. For NABU, it was an opportunity to engage educators and families at scale and highlight the importance of mother tongue literacy as the starting point for lifelong learning.
Why Kenya?
Kenya’s long-standing commitment to foundational literacy and its growing ecosystem of local language resources made it the ideal setting for this campaign. Through this collaboration, teachers, families, and communities across the country were introduced to NABU’s platform and mission.
NABU’s tech-based delivery of culturally relevant content supports both in-class learning and at-home storytelling. It opens doors for children to grow confident in their reading while building pride in their language and heritage.
In line with the celebration of International Mother Language Day, the campaign focused on languages spoken by millions of Kenyan children such as Swahili, Kikuyu, Luo, and Kamba and the value of children seeing themselves reflected in the books they read.
NABU’s Role in the Broadcast
During the EdTech Mondays segment, NABU shared its experience and expertise in using mobile technology to distribute free, high-quality children’s books in mother tongues. This appearance gave our team the chance to showcase how our platform is already being used by communities in Kenya to encourage daily reading habits at home and in schools.
“We are proud to be featured on a platform that promotes collaboration and knowledge-sharing,” said a NABU team member. “This campaign is about showing what’s possible when innovation meets inclusion.” _ Beryl Oywer
This initiative aligns with NABU’s broader work as part of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, which supports promising EdTech solutions that are working to close the literacy gap in Africa. Most recently, NABU showcased the improved app experience at the Fellowship Demo Day in Kenya, reinforcing its role as a leader in mobile-first literacy innovation.
Continuing the Mission: Reaching Every Child with the Power of Story
Looking forward, NABU is focused on continuing to amplify literacy efforts across Kenya and Africa at large. With every new user reached and every child engaged, we get closer to solving the global literacy crisis ensuring that every child has the opportunity to read and thrive in their mother tongue.
Want to Get Involved?
- Start Reading Today
Access NABU’s free children’s books in local languages through our mobile app and web reader.
- Support Our Mission
Your support helps us publish more stories and reach more children. Donate here
- Interested in Partnership?
Collaborate with us to expand access to local language books. Contact us
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THE IMPACT OF YOUR GIFT
NABU is free for children, families, and teachers, thanks to our generous donors. Your donation can make a big difference:
- $25 monthly subscription for one child: Provide access to the NABU app and hundreds of bilingual books for a child and their family
- $45 monthly subscription for one classroom: Gift NABU to a teacher for use in their classrooms to support student learning
- $1,500 to publish a children's book: Support our professional development initiatives, training local artists to create culturally relevant stories for children in their communities, with translations into 25 languages
- $5,000 to sponsor a country-wide children's radio program:Expand our impact through storytelling radio programs across an entire country