Dr. Banks oversees and manages all internal and external Abako operations and strategies, allocating resources and leading and training teams and staff. In addition, she visits all in-country projects, executes new initiatives, trains teachers, designs training materials, develops and maintains collaborations with local education officials and other educational stakeholders, conducts research, and communicates with the Board.
Dr. Banks has taught at all levels of education, from preschool to university students, in third-world and developed countries. She has worked with teachers in Brazil, Chile, China, India, Mali, and Mexico. She understands the power of good teaching and how a poor education impacts generations. Her educational trajectory has shaped her belief that sound teaching offers quality opportunities for children in marginalized communities. While teaching pre-service English teachers in Chile, she had an epiphany that led her to Abako and teachers with faint voices who needed support, encouragement, and fewer barriers to do their job efficiently.
Abako has been a big undertaking–from concept and design to a living organization. Still, with her complete and robust commitment to the value of education as the best gift and worthy inheritance we could give children, she will continue to invest her time, knowledge, and skills to change the status quo for children hidden under layers of bureaucracy and chronic neglect in underserved communities. Abako’s work in the trenches of education generates results: children are learning more, and teachers are teaching better!
Dr. May has been with Abako Foundation since 2016. She oversees junior high and high school academic projects and monitors implementation with each school leadership team. In addition, she follows up on the strategies and activities teachers apply across subjects, delivers project-writing workshops, and documents assessments of reading outcomes. Dr. May teaches junior and high school students English as a Foreign Language (EFL). She is a professor of master-level classes at the Escuela Normal Superior de Yucatan, where she also chairs several thesis committees. In addition, Dr. May is a dedicated researcher, curriculum reviewer, and writer.
She has received national and state awards for her writing and was recognized as an outstanding educator in Yucatan in 2017. Last year, she was awarded a medal for her effective educational practices implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, alongside the Abako team in Mexico, Dr. May co-authored research about teachers' challenges during the pandemic.
Being part of Abako Foundation and contributing to the education of Mayan communities in Yucatan is very rewarding. She believes that education empowers students, helps them achieve their academic goals, and improves their lives.
Dara manages the social media platforms for Abako in Mexico but also works closely with team members in India and Mali to inform our community about Abako projects in three countries. She is currently working on a B.A. degree at the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY), majoring in English Language Teaching.
Her interest in English started at a young age realizing the many opportunities a second language could give her, and she found the teaching path when she began working with kids in her church. She has experienced the power of education changing her life, so she firmly believes it is a right for everyone. She joined the Abako Foundation because of its work with children and teachers to improve access to quality education. In her corner of the world, education tends to be a privilege of the elite rather than a right for everyone; therefore, she applauds Abako’s effort to reach children in Mayan-speaking communities in the Yucatan Peninsula, whose education also matters. In addition, she appreciates Abako's vision to work with teachers who often receive little support from the government.
Dara sees her contribution to Abako as essential to support literacy and reading projects that improve children's education and encourage a passion for reading. Dara's role in Abako is not limited to creating social media content, but she hopes to encourage teachers worldwide to improve their teaching skills.
Mirna Canul Aké joined Abako Foundation as a digital content creator in 2023. Her main objective is gathering, curating, filtering, and sharing relevant content about Abako's reading projects worldwide and publishing it regularly through various channels.
She is a dedicated and committed junior school English teacher in Yucatan, Mexico. She encourages her students to speak and learn English, believing they will develop skills to achieve higher goals with proper guidance, motivation, and myriad activities to solidify their learning. She holds a bachelor's degree in English Language Teaching and a Master's in English from the Escuela Normal Superior de Yucatan (ENSY). She is also a Mayan language teacher and has taught it at different levels knowing that indigenous languages also empower people.
Mirna believes her work at Abako will significantly contribute to promoting its mission. The current reading projects have a social and academic impact on basic education. Reading is a crucial skill for acquiring knowledge and fostering creativity in students, but most importantly, it will positively impact children's lives.
Ms. Yobana joined the Abako team as a project coach to work alongside other teachers in her district. Her primary function is to support the implementation of reading strategies with preschool children by coaching their teachers virtually and in person. Ms. Yobana is a second-grade preschool teacher with 12 years of experience. She is eager to carry out the Abako reading project's objectives alongside parents in and outside the classroom. In this way, she hopes to shift the paradigm that sees reading as a tedious and challenging task.
During the 2021 – 22 school year, along with her entire teaching district, Ms. Yobana adopted Abako Foundation's reading project. Though initially difficult for being something very new to the school community, the Reading Corner slowly became an active learning zone. Thanks to collaborative work, new strategies introducing voice modulation, new words, and text interactions, children adapted to a new routine and are now familiar with books. One of the advantages of the Abako reading project is that we have reached 85% parent participation as they take turns coming to the classroom and reading to the children.
As an Abako team member, Ms. Yobana wishes to accompany other teachers in her district to learn how to do as they implement the reading project so that Mayan children learn to love reading.
Ms. Ivonne joined the Abako team as a project coach to work alongside other teachers in her district in Yucatan, Mexico. Her primary function is to support the implementation of reading strategies with preschool children by coaching their teachers virtually and in person. Ms. Ivonne is a first-grade preschool teacher with six years of experience and a bilingual Spanish-Mayan speaker. She is participating in the Abako reading project and has seen outstanding progress in her students. At the same time, this project has allowed her to develop new teaching strategies and activities related to reading.
Ms. Ivonne has a Bachelor's degree with a double major: Preschool Education and Bilingual Intercultural Preschool Education. She also has a Master's degree in Inclusive Education.Ms. Ivonne hopes this Abako project will have a lasting impact on children's learning while acquiring reading habits and a love for books. In addition, she expects this project will provide new tools for teachers to improve their practice as they teach reading skills at an early age.
As project leader for ABAKO in Mali, Sadio is in charge of planning, training, administrating, and allocating resources for implementing emergency and long-term projects. In addition, at Abako headquarters in Koutiala, he holds team meetings and writes minutes and reports for the leadership in the United States.
Sadio is an educator at the Teachers’ Training School (IFM) in Koutiala. He is studying for a Master’s in English Language Teaching at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENsup) of Bamako. He will graduate in July 2023.
Sadio taught primary and middle school before pursuing studies at university to become a secondary school teacher. He has experienced the positive change that Education can bring when he compares his life to those who did not get a chance to go to school and had to stay in the village. He joined ABAKO because he has witnessed how empowering teachers to fight against ignorance can improve children’s learning conditions.
Sadio is thankful to ABAKO for the opportunity to be part of its remarkable achievements in Koutiala in the field of Education. He talks to people about ABAKO’s vision of a world free of ignorance through a quality education where teachers and students are the central pillars.
Dadougou has overseen every project and program logistics for Abako Foundation in Mali since 2016. He works closely with local community leaders, education officials, and school management committees to refine the collaboration between the Abako Mali Team and the Education actors in Koutiala. Dadougou seeks a fruitful, new, and relevant Education System for Mali.
To sustain Abako'sprojects, he meets with Schools management committees to discuss a far-reaching vision of resource allocation to support children's education. In addition, he approaches teachers and invites them to apply transparent teaching methodologies in their daily work.
In high school, Dadougou was fascinated by English documents because of their diversity of areas and deep data. He realized thatEnglish was the world's most spoken language, so he chose to study English as a Foreign Language in addition to French. Also, he loved reading American missionaries' documents and the English Bible. Through World Vision Child Sponsorship Department, he translated letters from New Zealand for and on behalf of children. He was in charge of Literacy classes for World Vision, where non-school-attending children could read,write, and do arithmetic in five months. In addition, he was an interpreter for African English speakers during outreaches through YWAM. Finally, he attended a language program at a public university in San Diego, California, for four months to better his English.
He is committed to working hard with ABAKO because of its vision. He sees good education as the only way to launch his country's development and fight ignorance. He believes reading can turn children's minds away from technology slavery.
Sekou has been an Abako team member since March 2020, and his primary role is to be a liaison for new partnerships for Abako in Mali. He is also responsible for reporting Abako-Mali activities to the Foundation's headquarters in the United States.
He is studying at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Bamako to obtain a B.A. as an Elementary English Teacher.
Sekou learned English in elementary school in his native Koutiala, 406 Km from Mali's capital, Bamako. He taught English for eight years before applying to Mali's most extensive High School Teacher Training Program. This training will allow him to graduate as an Elementary English Teacher to serve his community. His vocation and passion for education led him to join Abako Foundation.
He intends to put his experience and love for children into implementing and promoting Abako's Literacy and Library Program and other projects that the region requires and allows. Being part of the Abako family enables him to collaborate with teams in the United States, India, and Mexico.
Naomie is the treasurer who handles all the financial records for Abako Foundation in Mali. She also visits schools and meets with community committee members to present Abako projects and assess their impact. She doubles as secretary for the team too.Naomie teaches English, music, and drawing in a public school in Koutiala, Mali.
From an early age, Naomie started teaching pupils in primary school at a Youth Mission. She acquired experiences that infused her passion for education and began working with children and the women's group with her Church congregation. She joined Abako Foundation because of its work with children and teachers to improve access to quality education. She shares Abako's vision to work with teachers and children in her native Koutiala, Mali.
With the support of Abako's leadership, she would like to use her talents to serve people, especially children, and to support literacy and reading projects. In addition, she hopes to encourage others to develop a passion for reading. Her team's unity is a source of inspiration for her.
Bikash is the Program Director of the Literacy and Library Program-LLP in Gaya, India. He manages the team and oversees the implementation of the LLP in 13 schools, working alongside 26 teachers and 3000 students. He also trains teachers and team members on time management, smart goal setting, language teaching, and a children's library concept. He researches the impact of children's libraries and the storytelling capacity of teachers on reading skills and habits. He allocates funds for project implementation in conjunction with Abako’s Executive Director. Additionally, he is a liaison between Abako Foundation and the local Department of Education to promote a working relationship that will eventually benefit all the 3200 schools in Gaya.
With a master's degree in engineering, he worked for an elementary school block in the Padna District of Bihar. There, he realized a learning crisis among students and a severely low teaching quality among teachers. To alleviate the situation, he founded an NGO to effect change in language teaching and activity-based learning while introducing the concept of a children's library and relevant pedagogy to ensure quality education for students. In 2021, he fused his vision, time, and talent with Abako Foundation. Thus, the Abako-Karunodaya team was born. Together, they have designed the Literacy & Library Program and implemented it in 13 public elementary schools in Gaya, India.
After working on the Literacy and Library Program for a year and seeing palpable changes in teachers’ pedagogy and progress in children’s reading abilities, Bikash and Abako Foundation would like to expand this program to more schools. He is focused on building a robust local team of teacher trainers to improve reading and teaching quality in Gaya. At the same time, he is documenting the impact of children’s literature on early language development. He will continue to advance Abako Foundation’s mission and goals, including empowering teachers, enhancing pedagogy, and providing quality education for underprivileged children. He is working under Dr. Lety Banks, CEO of the Abako Foundation, to develop his skills in effective communication, team management, and organizational leadership.
Ajit oversees all aspects of program content design and is a teacher trainer of the Abako Library Literacy Program in Gaya, India. He works with 25 teachers in 13 public elementary schools participating in this initiative. In addition, Ajit oversees day-to-day operations, collects program data, and conducts in-house capacity-building activities. He is also responsible for creating monthly and annual plans and developing children's book activities based on research for better implementation.
Ajit has over 20 years of experience in the education field. He has collaborated with other NGOs as a training teacher and educator, conducting workshops and courses. He has completed professional development courses in Social-Emotional Learning, SHALA Training, Society and Education, Literacy and Numeracy Education, Early Childhood Education, and Library Educator Course. He has also researched movable libraries to determine how to develop children's language skills using library concepts.
Ajit is eager to expand the library program to every school in Bihar because the government does not provide adequate teacher assistance. He wants to train every teacher to run a library program and help students become better readers and writers. He is working and mentoring the Abako team in Mali, Africa, to set up the Literacy and Library Program in rural schools. He hopes to create an online library course for teachers in Bihar to learn about children's libraries and how to use them.
Saurav's primary responsibility is writing the Literacy and Library Program's-LLP monthly, quarterly, and annual reports and sending them directly to Abako Foundation's CEO. He also supports the LLP by working with ten teachers in five schools weekly, demonstrating library activities such as Read Aloud, Book Talk, and Wall Magazine.
Saurav has worked in the education sector for the last four years, facilitating teachers' skills in literacy and improving processes to increase student attendance in rural schools in Bihar, India. In addition, he has worked with two other nonprofit organizations on school routines such as morning assembly and library time. His interest in creating Children's Libraries grew after he joined the Abako-Karunodaya team in early 2022.
Saurav's goals include expanding this literacy and library program throughout Bihar and other states in India while documenting the effects that Children's libraries have on the students and teachers so other educational organizations may partner up and learn from this work.
Saumya is passionate about education and social impact, and is currently handling the Indian social media accounts for Abako-Karunodaya. As part of her role, she creates engaging content and publishes the Abako-Karunodaya newsletter every month to raise awareness of our work. Additionally, she assists the Abako-Karunodaya team in setting up school libraries and conducting library events in schools. With her skills in communication and organization, she is dedicated to positively impacting education and improving the lives of children in her community.
She has worked as a girl Icon at Milaan Foundation, training a group of 20 girls on Education, Menstruation, Child Abuse, and Domestic Violence. During that time, she gained valuable experience raising awareness about critical social issues in the community. she also completed a Rural Development and Management course, where she learned about stakeholder engagement, program management, and other key skills that support her current role. In addition, she had the opportunity to intern at Aavishkaar, where she created posters and edited videos to support their organization's mission.
Her strong passion for working in the social sector had its genesis in her upbringing in a rural area with limited educational resources. Given her current involvement in the education sector, her objective is to extend the reach of the Literacy & Library program in Gaya and other areas. Improving the lives of people in rural areas is her goal.
Amit oversees the internal logistics of the literacy and library initiative in Gaya, India. He ensures that all 13 schools comply with the weekly library period during school to implement library routines and activities. Library routines include filling out library lending cards by students and writing library lesson plans and teacher diaries. Library activities include Book talks, Read-Aloud, Roleplay, Balgeet, and Wall Magazine. He also gathers data on all library-related activities in 13 schools and trains the Abako-Karunodaya team on library activities.
Amit has seven years of experience working in the non-profit education sector. First, he coordinated the early childhood and primary education programs at two Gurgaon, India, centers to bridge the learning gap. In addition, Amit taught remedial classes to students and trained teachers in lesson planning. He joined the Abako-Karunodaya team in 2022 because he supports the vision and mission of providing quality education to children through teachers in Gaya, India. He believes that skilled teachers can change students' lives if they only have the resources students need to succeed in academic work.
Amit sees his contribution to the Abako-Karunodaya team as strengthening the teacher's skills in library activities. He dreams of accomplishing this goal in his state of Bihar and throughout India. Amit believes in and supports Abako's efforts to provide quality education for marginalized children and wants to be part of it. He is presently learning Canva to create an E-magazine about the LLP.
Prakash manages all expense accounts for Abako-Karunodaya programs in Gaya, India, and ensures all funding complies with US and India's regulations. His focus is on simplifying the accounting processes to complete projects on time. He also provides logistics support for the Literacy and Library Program: teacher training, student events, and school visits to support all participating teachers. Lastly, he participates in all training in-house training with the team.
Prakash has been an accountant for three years and has two years of experience as a private school teacher. He has taken courses on children's language learning and education foundations and recently completed the e-Library Educator Course by Parag & Tata Institute of Social Studies in India. Prakash also worked for an Indian NGO for three years developing math content, teaching children and parents, and facilitating teacher training. His vision was to work with government schools to help marginalized students, and as a member of the Abako-Karunodaya family, he is finally achieving his goal.
He wants to learn different software and updates on accounting rules by the Indian Government to increase his accounting work's efficiency, which will benefit the foundation's work. He wants to work with the Abako Foundation to support schools as he better understands children's literature and library activities. Finally, he wants to work with Dr. Lety Banks to improve his English, Canva, and communication skills.