NABU

Directions Website Contact the organization

NABU NABU is a global nonprofit publisher delivering culturally relevant, mother-tongue children’s books to unlock literacy for millions.

We work with local creators, educators, and partners to ensure every child can learn in the language they understand best.

Today is International Day of the Girl. This year’s theme: end child marriage and invest in girls’ rights.UNICEF estimat...
10/11/2026

Today is International Day of the Girl. This year’s theme: end child marriage and invest in girls’ rights.

UNICEF estimates one in five girls is still married before 18. That is a rights issue, and rights need investment.

At NABU, we hold to a simple belief. Every girl deserves to learn in her own language and see herself in the story.

Swipe to meet Zaya, Mueni, Stella, Ifunanya and the Brave Girls. They ask questions, refuse limits and imagine bigger.

Books alone do not end child marriage. Schools, laws and communities do. But a story can show a girl that limits are placed on her, never born into her.

Scan the QR code on the last slide to read.

A book only becomes a reader when someone opens it with a child. Teachers and reading volunteers do that every day, in t...
10/05/2026

A book only becomes a reader when someone opens it with a child. Teachers and reading volunteers do that every day, in the language each child speaks at home.

To everyone who has led a read-aloud, stayed back after class, or handed a child the story that made them look up: thank you. NABU's work runs through you.

Help put the next story in a child's hands: nabu.org/donate

09/28/2026

How do we get books into the spaces where children already are?

Clara Masinde, NABU's Regional Director for East Africa, takes us through the partnerships helping deliver books to children in the places they already know and trust across East Africa.

From schools and Reading Corners to community organisations and digital access, these partnerships are bringing stories closer to children and making reading part of everyday life.

This week, Camille Park joined three early-years leaders on stage for Before Grade One: Building Early Learning Systems ...
09/25/2026

This week, Camille Park joined three early-years leaders on stage for Before Grade One: Building Early Learning Systems That Last, at UNGA81.

Alongside her: Dr. David Johnson of Oxford University, Dr. Natnael Asres of Ethiopia's African Center for Early Childhood Development, and Mara Lee Durrell of Rise Alliance for Children. Four speakers, one real question: what makes early learning last past the pilot stage?

Three days later, NABU and AfC-ECD signed a partnership to find out.

This week, NABU showed up in numbers for NAFA Nigeria 's UNGA81 side event, Africa Forward: Harnessing Sport for Inclusi...
09/25/2026

This week, NABU showed up in numbers for NAFA Nigeria 's UNGA81 side event, Africa Forward: Harnessing Sport for Inclusion, Youth Empowerment and Sustainable Development. It came just two weeks after NABU and NAFA launched Jojo and the Winning Play in Lagos, on International Literacy Day.

CEO Camille Park spoke. NABU's Director of Literacy and MEL, Heidi Schubert, was in the room too, alongside Matthew Levy, who wrote Jojo and the Winning Play. So were two guests NABU brought along: Dr. David Johnson of Oxford University , and Margaret Olele, CEO of the American Business Council Nigeria, whose own family proverbs inspired a NABU storybook launching in a few weeks.

Different room, same habit: bring the people who make the work better.

NABU just signed its newest government partnership: a Memorandum of Understanding with Ethiopia's African Center For Ear...
09/25/2026

NABU just signed its newest government partnership: a Memorandum of Understanding with Ethiopia's African Center For Early Childhood Development (AfC-ECD), a center established by the Addis Ababa City Administration.

The agreement starts with ten NABU titles adapted into Amharic, with further languages, including Afaan Oromo and Sidaamu Afoo, planned as the partnership grows. From there, the roadmap runs through 2029: a Training of Trainers fellowship, a six-week creative fellowship for Ethiopian writers and illustrators, and a national literacy investment programme built with government priorities at the center, not layered on top of them.

This is what NABU's model actually looks like in practice. Not a translation exercise. A government choosing to build local publishing capacity, in the languages its own children speak, with NABU as the infrastructure partner.
Camille Park, NABU’s CEO, signed the agreement in New York with Dr. Kebede Worku , CEO of AfC-ECD.
Dr. Natnael Asres Yamnew (M.D, MPH,MSc GH-GS), Director of Program and Strategic Partnerships, was also present at the signing.

Full details of the partnership are available at nabu.org/news.

Next week, NABU's presence at the 81st UN General Assembly isn't a single appearance. It's two conversations Camille Par...
09/19/2026

Next week, NABU's presence at the 81st UN General Assembly isn't a single appearance. It's two conversations Camille Park is bringing NABU into, each testing the same belief from a different angle: that literacy takes root long before it looks like literacy.

On 21 September, Camille joins The Sidebar's "Before Grade One: Building Early Learning Systems That Last," alongside Dr. David Johnson , Dr. Natnael Asres Yamnew, African Center for Early Childhood Development), and Mara Lee Durrell , a working conversation on what makes early learning permanent rather than a pilot that ends with the grant.

The same day, she joins UNGA 81 side event, "Africa Forward: Harnessing Sport for Inclusion, Youth Empowerment and Sustainable Development," building on NABU and NAFA's own partnership around Jojo and the Winning Play.

Systems and sport. Policy rooms and playing fields. Different doors into the same idea: where a child starts reading is where their future starts opening up.

In New York for UNGA week? Scan the QR code to connect with Camille.

09/15/2026

What kind of books are we putting in children's hands?
That's the question Monica Grecu, NABU's Director of Creative Content, asks this International Literacy Day.
At NABU, we believe children connect with stories that feel familiar, stories rooted in their language, culture and community.
Listen in as she explains why culturally relevant stories are an important part of building literacy.

09/10/2026

This International Literacy Day, NABU CEO Camille Park has a message worth sitting with: literacy is a fundamental human right, but access to a book isn't enough if that book isn't in a language a child understands.

That's why NABU creates children's books in local languages, working with local writers and illustrators, and brings those stories to children through schools, digital platforms, and Reading Corners, so no child has to leave their language, culture, or identity behind to become a reader.

Watch Camille's full message below, and join us in celebrating what's possible when every child has a book they can understand.

09/08/2026

13 years. Four collections. One belief: every child deserves stories that feel familiar.
From the app to the web reader, print to radio, NABU meets children wherever they are, because literacy in your own language changes everything.

Join the mission this International Literacy Day. nabu.org

Address

New York, NY
10010

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when NABU posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to NABU:

Shortcuts

Sponsored

Share

Category