TANYELLA EVANS, CEO of NABU

Tanyella Evans is the co-founder and CEO of NABU, a tech non-profit that has built a cloud-based digital library and platform to make knowledge accessible to communities in the developing world. NABU is disrupting the cycle of poverty, leveraging technology to put mother tongue books at the fingertips of children in low bandwidth environments. NABU's mission is to look at the systemic issue of illiteracy that affects 250M children globally, by solving the imbalance in the creation and distribution of children's books, so all children can read and rise to their full potential.

Tanyella's journey into impact began at 17, after spending a year teaching in Uganda. Upon realizing her students were so hungry for knowledge that they begged her for homework, Tanyella committed to removing the barriers to quality education.

She credits her upbringing, spending summers in Jamaica with her grandparents and attending school on the island for a while, for shaping her life and her purpose.  "I believe that every child deserves access to education, regardless of who they are and where they were born," Tanyella said. "Being from a mixed-race family and seeing how my mom struggled, I have always identified with the outsider."

NABU was the God of literacy and wisdom in ancient Mesopotamia and the name suited the mission to increase literacy perfectly. Tanyella trained at the Campaign for Female Education in the United Kingdom. As Executive Director of Artists for Peace and Justice, she led a team to establish a school that is now serving over 2,000 students on the edge of one of the poorest slums in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Today, 45,000 children and families are reading in Rwanda and NABU sees growth daily as the program is free and easy to download.  Tanyella is a recipient of a United World College scholarship to Lester B. Pearson College, and graduated with a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

KNOW MORE: https://www.nabu.org/