Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific

University of Cambridge

Co-creator and Executive Director at NABU

New York, New York, United States

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 address 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.

Right now 250M children are at risk of social and economic exploitation because they are leaving school without being able to read or write. Literacy is a prerequisite for eradicating poverty; from reducing child deaths, to raising incomes, to defending women and girls rights.

The reason this injustice exists is because of limited access to mother tongue books, which means children can’t learn to read in a language they understand. Without basic literacy, children are unable to bridge to reading in English or other national languages. NABU addresses this huge unmet need by creating and distributing mother tongue books that support children in learning how to read. NABU is redefining the publishing system and democratizing access to literacy, one child at a time.

NABU

Executive Director, Co-Creator

Strategic Consulting; training, research, strategy and business plan development for business, social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations. Ito is a strategy and development firm that collaborates with social entrepreneurs, proving them with tools to build and grow sustainable enterprises.

The Ito Partnership

Strategic Consultant

Artists for Peace and Justice is a non-profit organization focused on secondary education in Haiti. As Executive Director I was responsible for the operational management and strategic planning, managing a team of five. Successfully established a sponsorship program, with four major brands and high-net worth donors engaged, raising over $1.3 million in six months. Also worked with partners in Haiti to design phase 2 of construction of a secondary school for 3,000 children, and began implementation of a monitoring and evaluation program.

Artists for Peace and Justice

Executive Director

Engaged by the Head of Advocacy to write timely briefs and discussion papers on pressing issues in the development sector.

World Vision Australia

Researcher

Managed a small team to drive business growth in this successful start-up social enterprise, which has raised over GBP150,000 in untapped and unrestricted funding for UK charities.

Giveacar

Business Development Manager

Undertook six-month intensive training under the Director of Development Laura Donohue to research prospects and draft reports and proposals for trusts, corporations and statutory donors. Included managing the due diligence process and editing sections of the largest proposal in Camfed's history ($10million) from the MasterCard Foundation, which was successful.

Camfed International

Development Team Intern

With Inuit colleague, planned and implemented a summer Dance School for children in this remote Greelandic community. We were funded by a government initiative established to help fund social programs in this remote community.

Nunafunden

Community Project Coordinator

A small non-profit providing young people affected by HIV/AIDS and child-headed families with support to go to school and lift themselves out of poverty. Also helped by providing shelter and building wattle-and-daub houses for poor families.

Youth Encouragement Services

Volunteer

Volunteered as a teacher at this primary school teaching English, Maths and Science.

Tanyella Evans