A Children's book series shaping little readers into future leaders by reading your way around Rwanda with universal leadership lessons

Meet the Author: Dr. Melany Rabideau

Welcome! My name is Dr. Melany Rabideau from Frederick, MD. I currently live in Rwanda and serve as an Assistant Professor with the University of Global Health Equity overseeing the leadership curriculum. With 10 years of leadership experience in United States healthcare and a Doctoral Degree in Organizational Leadership, I took my passion abroad to learn and teach alongside global health change-makers. You can check out my work here. 

As a professor and practitioner of leadership, I noticed there is a gap in the leadership literature for children. Adults spend a lot of time, money, and energy developing their leadership skills. Why not start earlier with inspiring and intentional leadership development for children? Therefore, I have invested my time and talents to produce the words for my first children's' book series designed for little readers and future leaders. 

As we normalize at home education and find ways to keep our children engaged in learning, this series will also be intriguing to parents with brilliant images and thoughtful messages. The language is simple, repetitive, and rhythmic to assist with reading development along with profound sentiments. To make leadership lessons inviting to children, each book explores different characters and settings inspired by the beautiful regions of Rwanda - story time will not feel like an academic activity:)

Meet the illustrator: Dolph Banza

Murakaza neza! My name is Dolph Banza. I am a self-taught Rwandan visual artist who is passionate about the art of education and storytelling.

I went to school to become an engineer, but I made a risky decision to pursue illustration despite the fact that it is was not considered a real profession in my country until recently.

I was among the first Rwandans to adopt digital illustration as a medium of communication.

Though I master many visual arts like graphic design and video, I remain committed to a practice I have been experimenting with ever since I could hold a pencil, illustration.

I have illustrated numerous educational materials and children’s books; some of which are being used in Rwanda’s national education curriculum. You can check out my work here.

Reading materials that are designed within the Rwandan context are rare. As a leader who took the initiative to start a creative company, I think relatable leadership lessons need to be part of every Rwandan child’s storybook collection

Meet the translator: Isaïe Micomyiza

My name is Isaie Micomyiza. I am a translator and children’s media professional with a background in book publishing and educational services. I have a BA in Translation & Interpreting Studies from the National University of Rwanda in 2012. I have been active in children’s content creation since 2014 and have directed the editorial and production process of more than 100 books in Kinyarwanda, French, English, and Swahili. 

Over the past five years, Rwandan publishing industry has shown exceptional growth in terms of children’s books production and distribution. However, there are topics that children’s books authors haven’t explored, because they either believe children are too young to understand those topics or because they find the topics too hard to address appropriately in children’s content. I was excited to learn about Little Readers & Leaders project because it deals with leadership - one of those topics we haven’t explored enough in children’s books. I feel honoured to contribute my knowledge, skills and experience in translation and children’s content for the success of this incredible project.