NABU Launches FREE Reading App in Romania

NABU Partners with UiPath Foundation and OvidiuRO to Support Underserved Children in Romania

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, October 8, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — NABU, a New York-based nonprofit focused on eradicating poverty through increased literacy, has established a partnership with two educational nonprofits in Romania, UiPath Foundation and OvidiuRO.

NABU has officially launched its free NABU Reading App in the Romanian and Ukrainian languages to boost children’s access to stories written in their mother tongue. While addressing growing concerns about literacy among Romanian youth, Romania has also welcomed over one million refugees from Ukraine due to the ongoing war, and NABU is proud to be part of the global effort to help Ukrainian refugees.

According to Tanyella Evans, Executive Director and Co-Creator of NABU, “Schools are trying to create a safe environment for these vulnerable children, and increased access to stories in the Romanian and Ukrainian languages will provide comfort to the students, support for the teachers, and an added layer of educational stability.”

UNICEF conducted four rounds of rapid assessments in Romania, in partnership with the government and other groups that included the World Bank, and found “widening gaps in access to healthcare, education and social services with a disproportionate impact on the country’s most vulnerable children. 58 percent of respondents noted the pandemic’s strong impact on health services, while 84 percent reported interrupted educational services.” The pandemic exacerbated a literacy crisis.

“Access to early education can give children more chances and opportunities throughout life. The NABU app, we believe, is one of the solutions we need to make reading more accessible and to encourage children from vulnerable backgrounds to develop through reading”, says Maria Gheorghiu, President of OvidiuRO.

“Children who come from poor families don’t have easy access to books. The parents often prioritize other basic expenses such as food and clothes over books. Thus, these children are growing up without books and are facing a difficult start in life and gaps in literacy. We partnered with NABU and OvidiuRO to make books accessible to all children, regardless of their background. Studies show that at the beginning of 2022, there were approximately 16.8 million Internet users in Romania, and its penetration rate was 88% of the total population. Which makes us believe that NABU is a tool that will prove very useful in facilitating access to books for as many children as possible in Romania,” says Raluca Negulescu-Balaci, Executive Director, UiPath Foundation.

NABU and its two Romanian partners understand that literacy builds a path out of poverty. NABU is excited to help both organizations reach their goals by increasing community collaboration and improving access to mother tongue literature. This global partnership will help more children achieve what all children deserve: the chance to reach their full potential.

About NABU

NABU is a nonprofit organization, with a mission to solve the global literacy crisis so that every child can read and rise to their full potential. We disrupt the cycle of poverty by leveraging technology to publish children’s books for free on digital platforms in mother tongue languages. Visit https://www.nabu.org/ to learn more.

About UiPath Foundation

UiPath Foundation is a global, non-governmental, non-profit, non-political, non-religious organization that aims to support children from vulnerable backgrounds to reach their potential and thrive alongside their communities through equal access to education and the development of 21st century skills. UiPath Foundation was founded by the UiPath company in 2019 and acts as an independent organization.

About OvidiuRo

Since 2004, the mission of OvidiuRO Association is to facilitate access to quality early education for all children in Romania, especially for those from vulnerable groups. OvidiuRO mobilizes private and public resources to pilot and subsequently expand integrated socio-educational interventions nationwide.

Colleen Furman
NABU
colleen@nabu.org
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