Haitian Creatives Unlocked

NABU is committed to building the bridge to equality one mother-tongue story at a time, whilst professionally developing local talent to create culturally relevant children's stories in Haitian Creole. Our solution is to engage 10  disadvantaged Haitian creatives in a traineeship, led by our experienced Creative Director. Participants will be equipped with tools they require to upgrade their illustration technique. They will also have the opportunity to adapt and illustrate 20 Creole stories for publication on our free, low-bandwidth-enabled App for Haitian children. Further, stories will be published in print for global distribution. Our solution will positively impact lives in two ways. First, we are facilitating the professional development of 10 creatives, to provide them with the design-skills they need to gain future employment. Secondly, we are providing Haitian children with access to rich, mother-tongue stories that are essential in gaining basic literacy skills.

Environmental and societal factors play a harsh role in exacerbating the skills-gap that exists in Haiti.  The World Bank reports that Haiti is caught in a vicious circle where “unemployment, inequality, and poor education feed into lawlessness and violence, making it difficult for the economy to grow and create jobs, thus perpetuating unemployment and inequality.” This cycle continues to impact young Haitians who are unsuccessfully searching for a means to enter the workforce. Currently, the unemployment rate in Haiti is 14.5%, with over 6M Haitians living below the poverty line. This is a consequence of civil unrest and natural disasters, both of which have crippled the economy and infrastructure. Now more than ever, progress must be made across several industries, so that the Haitian people can rebuild their nation. 

Through our Haitian programs, our team discovered a treasure-trove of Haitian creatives who were yearning to develop their technical design skills. These artists did not have the resources to attend arts-based traineeships. NABU’s solution focuses on leveraging the skills of these creatives to develop Creole stories for children. The skills we teach, will allow them to take advantage of commissioned-design and employment opportunities in the Caribbean and worldwide.

NABU will directly improve the lives of two groups: 

1. 10 Haitian artists from disadvantaged backgrounds based in Port-au-Prince, who would not otherwise have the means to engage in skills-based training. Our goal is to ensure that these creatives are afforded the coaching they require to create new income opportunities for themselves and their communities. Our Haitian Team, led by our local Director, will be responsible for engaging trainees. Our Team will take a holistic approach when recruiting a potential participant, by looking at their background, current income, skill level, experience and the opportunities currently available to them. We will provide participants with a pre-training and post-training questionnaire for completion. These questionnaires will request information on needs, expectations, availability and current employment/household situations to ensure minimal disruption to daily lives. Upon conclusion of the traineeship, participants will be asked to reflect on their experience. 

Haitian children who do not have access to an adequate number of books in their mother-tongue to support their literacy journey. The 25 Creole books that are adapted and re-illustrated as part of this traineeship, will be distributed via our free, low-bandwidth app for Haitian children to access, regardless of their ability to attend school.

In 2017, we received funding from USAID to fill the gap in Creole content. As part of this project, we trained over 50 aspiring authors and illustrators on the use of digital writing technology over two workshops. In just six months, we created 259 culturally representative, original Haitian stories, that were leveled to the national curriculum. These stories were written by Haitians, for Haitians.

Due to limited funding, we were not able to adapt and refine every illustration in our books. Research shows that imagery is important in children’s books, as children looked to illustrations to guide their comprehension of words. It is imperative therefore, that we adapt and revise these illustrations, so Haitian children can receive a quality educational experience when reading our books. 

Our solution is bold, yet straight-forward. First, we will commission, and provide a virtual traineeship to 10 aspiring illustrators on digital book illustration. Over a period of three months, we will hold group and individual training for our creatives, so they can enhance their skills, and learn about design architecture. The traineeship will be led by our Creative Director, an experienced artist, who brings an array of design experience to his work. Our Creative Director has worked with world-renowned artists, and leads our workshops in East Africa where we are creating children’s stories in Kinyarwanda and Swahili.

Over the three-month period, illustrators will engage with, and learn from our Creative Director. They will be introduced to the basics of digital illustration technology, and will have the opportunity to partake in the adaptation and redesign of 25 stories from our initial workshops. We will provide digital illustration tools to help participants complete their work, and support with the continuation of their craft upon conclusion of the traineeship. Illustrators’ biographies will also be printed on books they create, so they receive recognition, exposure and a pathway to future employment and income. 

Our solution will also benefit Haitian children, who will gain access to a collection of culturally representative books in their mother-tongue, Creole. Once our trainees have finalized the collection of 25 stories, each story will be uploaded to our low-bandwidth app so Haitian children can use their parents’ low-end mobile device to download the book, and read for free.

Our solution is innovative for a number of reasons, particularly due to the way in which our problem was discovered, and the sustainability of our program. This solution was identified unexpectedly, through our efforts to bridge the literacy gap in Haiti. The more we attempted to source mother-tongue stories for our low-bandwidth app, the harder they become to locate. Whilst exploring solutions for Haiti, our team discovered that there was a large pocket of aspiring Haitian creatives who were yearning to professionally develop skills in their creative fields. Our solution provides these creatives with the durable skills required to seek future employment and generate income for their families.

Our program is also sustainable, in that the impact of this project will extend well beyond this grant opportunity. Upon conclusion of the program, the books created by the trainees will be uploaded to our low-bandwidth, free app for Haitians to read and enjoy indefinitely. Further, print versions of these books will be sold worldwide, helping NABU generate revenue to put back into our Haitian programs. While the workshop will focus on training participants on digital design, there will also be a focus on mentorship, and pathways to employment. The exposure and visibility trainees receive through this program will allow them to competitively seek opportunities in Haiti and more broadly, across the Caribbean. Furthermore our workshop is digital in nature allowing for optimal delivery in a virtual environment.

Our primary goal is to strengthen employment opportunities for disadvantaged creatives in Haiti by training them in digital illustration and design. We are confident that our innovative solution will address the problem, given our well-planned training methodology and demonstrated experience training artists globally. 

This project will be headed by our Creative Director, Michael Ross, who has significant experience training local creatives and understanding their unique needs. Since joining our team, Michael has led digital illustration workshops in Rwanda, successfully coaching a group of fifteen young locals in Kigali to illustrate an early grade collection of 150 books in Kinyarwanda. Currently, Michael is upskilling four Rwandan creatives, by coaching them through the design and illustration of our global Health Collection of children’s books. 

Our success training local creatives to date is premised on a well-planned training program and open communications between Michael and his trainees. Creatives who work with Michael leave with enhanced design skills, but also greater confidence to take advantage of future employment opportunities. At the conclusion of the program, the designers will possess improved illustration and design technique, greater business acumen, greater awareness of opportunities and connections to potential clients.

We held our first writing workshop in 2017, and were able to equip approximately 50 Haitian creatives with essential digital authorship and illustration skills. 

Similarly,  our solution will provide selected trainees with the opportunity to have their work published internationally. Our print-publishing venture, NABU Publishing, globally releases two new children’s books each month from our network of locally commissioned creators in Haiti. Proceeds from the sale of these books go directly towards our Haitian programming. To date, we have sold over 1,000 titles since our launch in October of 2019, and have provided vast global exposure to the work of creatives who participated in our original writing workshop. 

In the first year of this program, we will have directly served our ten trainee participants. These trainees will be given the professional development training they require to gain future employment in their artistic fields. In the next five years, we expect to see a ripple effect. As a result of their participation in the program and the visibility incurred, trainees will have been able to grasp other income opportunities, increasing income for themselves, their family and hopefully their community. Proceeds from NABU Publishing will also allow us to scale our traineeship for upcoming creatives in the future. During this traineeship, we plan to instill the importance of ‘giving-back’ in our participants, so we can engage them to help us train future illustrators in upcoming years.

Our goals for the next year, and next five years are multifaceted. Within the next twelve months, we aim to adapt our successful illustration model that has been implemented in Rwanda to the local Haitian creative community. We have perfected a cost-effective traineeship that provides creatives with the sophisticated technical design skills they require to execute creative deliverables in a timely and efficient manner. We will also add a further fifteen books to our NABU Publishing endeavor. These books will be sold in print and digital format worldwide. 

In the next five years, we aim to establish a bi-annual creative training program. The funding for these creative design workshops will stem from the proceeds of our global book sales. As part of this creative training program, we will recruit promising talent from this traineeship, to receive further training from our Creative Director and provide them with the opportunity to engage in external projects. These illustrators will also be called on to train other disadvantaged creatives who are in need of professional development opportunities in coming years, so they too can create prosperous livelihoods for themselves. 

Haiti’s political environment, and the current COVID-19 global pandemic are two barriers that could threaten the achievement of our goals in Haiti. 

Though we commenced our organizational programming in Haiti almost seven years ago, it has been the most difficult program nation to make steady progress in. This is due to instability caused by Haiti’s politics and its crumbling economy. In the past twelve months, we were forced to pause our ambassador program, which sought to drive visibility and readership of our digital app throughout the country. Haitian schools were also closed over the second half of 2019 due to violence and political demonstrations, which meant we could not implement our school program. The situation was so hostile, that our Team went into lockdown mode in their homes, restricting our traction and implementation of our programs for the year. 

The recent COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020 is a further risk that could impact upon our team’s ability to carry out grant outcomes for this project. Much like the political lockdown of 2019, the pandemic has forced much of Haiti to shut down, and residents, including our local team, have been forced indoors. 

In addition to the above major barriers, other obstacles that could arise during the course of this project include lack of internet connection and a trainee’s lack of digital illustration tools.

Our existing experiences have allowed NABU to become increasingly proactive in our approach to global programming. We take a digital or virtual approach to almost every programmatic activity we undertake, allowing us to cut costs, save resources and put the safety of our team members first. This approach also extends to our writing and/or illustration workshops. 

Our Creative Director has demonstrated experience conducting digital workshops, and virtually mentoring creatives from around the world. He has also perfected the delivery of illustration theory and the communication of practical skills required to operate design softwares. Additionally, we have the capability to provide trainees with internet connectivity in the event that they do not have access. 

The virtual nature of our solution allows us to engage with, and train creatives from around the globe, irrespective of their geographic location or circumstances. In the Haitian context, this means that we can continue our work regardless of the political situation or COVID-19, as participants can partake in the traineeship from the comfort of their homes. In the event that a trainee does not have internet connection at home, we will do what we can to find a solution. This means providing them with funds to pay for a connection, or connecting them with one of our partner organizations for sponsorship in this area. We will also provide trainees with a digital illustration tablet, so that they can successfully complete the traineeship, and use this device to successfully undertake future opportunities.

Our solution is not being implemented in the Caribbean in the form we are proposing. We have, however, been operating in Haiti since our pilot program in 2013. Our operations over the last 7 years have included partnerships with several organizations in Port-au-Prince, La Gonave and Leogane. We have been partnering with local schools to implement our offline model, where schools purchase classroom sets of tablets and use the NABU app as a virtual library on these devices. The purpose of our app is to help children achieve literacy by giving them access to books in their mother tongue language. Our app also provides children with the opportunity to continue learning during school closures, as they can download our digital library on their parents’ android devices and keep reading at home. 

Content creation has also been a successful part of our programming in Haiti. In 2017, with funding from USAID, we united 50 local authors and illustrators in Port-au-Prince to partake in our first writing and illustration workshop. Upon conclusion of the workshop, we had created 260 original stories in Haitian Creole, which we published for free on our app. The success of this program helped us both reimagine our mission, and identify the incredible treasure-trove of creative talent that existed in Haiti and worldwide.

The following staff members will implement our solution for Haiti: 

• Director of Haiti: Francoise Thybulle

• IT Manager: Tabitha Georges

• Director of Global Operations & Programs: Taniya Benedict 

• Creative Director: Michael Ross

Our team is well equipped to deliver this solution as they have prior experience conducting such programs globally.

• Our Haiti Director, Francoise Thybulle has been driving NABU’s program efforts in Haiti. With an education in Library Sciences from Columbia University, she has been a champion of reading in Haiti and the Caribbean region. Before joining NABU in 2014, Francoise was the Director of the Haitian National Library, and has vast experiences in content curation and creation. Francoise is also integral to the development of partnerships for the expansion of our mission across the region given her range of networks and connections with individuals across all sectors. 

• Our IT Project Manager, Tabitha Georges plays a significant role in streamlining our technology, and ensuring all partners are properly trained on our hardware and software solutions. She will be responsible for ensuring all trainees are reaping full benefits of the program from a technical skills perspective.

• Our Creative Director, Michael Ross is pivotal in the creation of workshop curriculum, and will lead the training of our illustrator participants. Michael brings an array of eclectic experience and skills to the solution. He is integral in building NABU’s artistic identity and conveying that vision to our network of global illustrators. 

• Our Director of Global Operations and Programs, Taniya Benedict, has played a significant role in shaping our global programs since 2015. Taniya led the original writing workshop series in 2017, and has helped adapt and crystalize that process across all of our program countries. 

Over the years, we have built extensive partnerships with a number of Haitian organizations to support our mission. 

• Partnerships with schools and community libraries across Port Au Prince, Leogane and La Gonave.  As part of this partnership, schools purchase low-cost Android devices which will provide access to our digital reading app. Teachers will then schedule reading time with their students daily or weekly, to monitor reading comprehension. 

• Partnerships with device manufacturers, like Surtab and World Possible. These corporate organizations provide our school partners with low-cost devices so that children are able to access our digital books and read in a classroom setting. 

• Partnerships with nonprofit organizations in the US, like The Haitian American Caucus which is a young and vibrant organization dedicated for the betterment of the local, national and international community of Haitian Americans. 

• Our partnership with Ingram, an American publishing service provider that has allowed for the global distribution of our books through renowned sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. At the conclusion of the traineeship, the books re-designed by our participants will be added to our NABU book collection, and Ingram will allow for the work of these creatives to be sold globally.

NABU’s business model includes three elements that are integral to global impact:

Content - Research demonstrates that a child needs at least 150 leveled, mother-tongue reading books from grades 1-3 to achieve literacy. Our starting point is to approach local publishing companies, commissioning them to license their books to us for inclusion on our app. Where mother tongue-books do not exist, we have the ability to train local authors and illustrators to develop this collection in as little as twelve months. We also curate hundreds of children’s stories in English and French so children can learn literacy in a global language of business. 

Distribution. We distribute our content through our low bandwidth enabled reading app, NABU.ORG. Our app can operate offline and on low-end smartphones. This is an essential feature as our beneficiaries often do not have access to the internet at home.

Engagement - To achieve literacy, children are required to actively engage with books on a regular basis. We invest in grassroots partnerships with businesses and government to inspire a reading culture and drive engagement with our app. 

The beauty of our business model is that each pillar of our business directly benefits specific members of the local population. For instance, content  positively impacts the publishing industry, and those with artistic and creative talents. The distribution limb creates opportunity for local and regional telecommunications organizations and hardware manufacturers, and the engagement limb impacts on the thousands of children and their families who need access to mother-tongue books.

Our path to financial sustainability is based on the following three key functions, which in conjunction, form the foundation of our path to financial sustainability. 

• Sustained Donations -  our organization has secured sustained donations from individual donors who are loyal believers in NABU’s work and have pledged monthly commitments for 2020. 

• Streamlined Grants Program - this program is led by our Director of Operations & Programs, Taniya Benedict. Taniya’s role is to oversee the execution of our global grants workflow, which will enable our team to secure the largest possible amount of grant funding for 2020. 

• Book Sales through NABU Publishing -  as a social enterprise, the goal of NABU Publishing is to sell as many of our original books as possible. All profits are directly injected into the expansion of our Haitian programs. Since the launch of this endeavor in October of 2019, we have sold over 1,000 titles through organic marketing.

We are applying to the TPrize Challenge as we are determined to continue our work in Haiti as part of a broader team of change-makers and are excited about reinventing our existing writers workshop program for the rapidly changing global tech-design landscape. 

Our experience in Haiti has allowed us to identify the incredible treasure-trove of talent that exists within disadvantaged communities. Talent that can lead to increased global opportunities and prosperous livelihoods if we can provide the technical skills, business acumen and confidence to monetize their work. The reinvention of our writer workshop program with a specific focus on illustration and design will allow us to consider commissioning participants for future employment; particularly in the creation and adaptation of mother-tongue content for NABU Publishing. It will also allow us to build our network of global illustrators, whom we can call on to conduct future traineeships for younger generations of Haitian creatives.

We would like to partner with organizations that will prove beneficial to the sale of books for our NABU Publishing endeavour. The sustained generation of revenue from this social enterprise will directly contribute to the funding of our Haitian programs, and will allow us to scale our impact to disadvantaged Haitian communities. Media companies and publications such as the Haitian Times and L’union Suite have a deep impact and influence within the Haitian diaspora. Most of our organic sales to date have come from special mention of our books by these organizations. Partnerships in the form of advertising, special events and other collaborations, will allow us to maximize book sales and consequently increase revenue for NABU’s Haitian programs.

We would like to partner with organizations that will prove beneficial to the sale of books for our NABU Publishing endeavor. The sustained generation of revenue from this social enterprise will directly contribute to the funding of our Haitian programs, and will allow us to scale our impact to disadvantaged Haitian communities. Media companies and publications such as the Haitian Times and L’union Suite have a deep impact and influence within the Haitian diaspora. Most of our organic sales to date have come from special mention of our books by these organizations. Partnerships in the form of advertising, special events and other collaborations, will allow us to maximize book sales and consequently increase revenue for NABU’s Haitian programs.