Founded in New York in 2013, NABU is an award-winning literacy organization committed to helping children learn to read in their mother tongue.

NABU’s mission is to solve the global literacy crisis so that every child can read and rise to their full potential. The organization aims to provide every child with equitable access to literacy by 2030.

NABU is a reading app with the following key features:

• it’s free
• easy-accessible
• dedicated to children aged 2-10
• best suited for low bandwidth environments
• requires a basic smartphone
• bilingual
• it can be used offline, the books can be downloaded.

Worldwide, NABU has reached 5,53M+ children, over 750 titles published in 15 languages, 150+ local artists trained in digital skills and 1.53M books downloaded. In Romania, since the launch in October 2022, we’ve reached over 62.000 downloads, over 670.000 books read, over 435.000 minutes spent in the app and a community of over 700 of Reading Ambassadors.

NABU partnered with OvidiuRO Association, The National Association of Romanian Librarians and Ajungem Mari Association to reach children with vulnerable background and to help them discover the joys and benefits of reading.

In what has become Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, the country’s 7.5 million children have had their education disrupted and more than 1.5M children have been displaced and left with no access to educational materials.

Through NABU’s emergency response campaign, 40 original and levelled titles were translated in Ukrainian for the 1.5M+ displaced Ukrainian children around the world. The books were used by families, but also by organizations who host refugees, in a context where the educational process was severely disrupted for Ukrainian children.

Now NABU Romania needs support for completing and publishing 20 books in Romanian and English which consists of a total budget of 3500 euro. Also, for adapting and publishing 35 books in Ukrainian and Romanian they need 2500 euro.

Another project that needs support is creating and publishing 8 Romani and Romanian books, with a version translated into Romani and English. These books are for the Romani community in Romania and requires a budget of 10.000 euro.

For more details, please contact cristina@nabu.org.