The Power of Edutainment in Africa - A Conversation with Doreen Kessy

Doreen Kessy is a Chief Business Officer at Ubongo. At Ubongo,
she is instrumental in the growth of the organization,
innovating, and finding ways to continually deliver fun learning
to over 17 million families in Africa. She has expertise in
business development and leadership in the edtech and fun
learning space. Doreen has an MBA and BSc in International
Business and Economics from Liberty University and has worked at
the International Justice Mission in Washington DC, Wells Fargo
and Smile for Africa in Zimbabwe. She was named “Entrepreneur of
the Year in Education” by Women In Africa, is a Global Shaper at
the World Economic Forum, and a 2018 Acumen Fellow. Doreen loves
to have fun, she acts the English voice of one of Ubongo Kids
cartoon characters, Ngedere (a playful monkey).


With the huge number of children across Africa still lacking
access to quality learning opportunities, it is so inspiring to
hear about what Doreen and Nisha and the team at Ubongo are
doing. And Ubongo is a great example of an organization working
directly at the nexus between education and social
entrepreneurship, not only working to support the learning of
children and families across Africa, but also feeding back ideas
and support into the education system itself. So I hope you enjoy
the conversation as much as I did.


Doreen, with the Ubongo team, won the Global Education and Skills
Forum, Next Billion Edtech Prize in 2019 and, as a result,
established The Building Brains Conference on early childhood
learning and development.


Dina L G Borzekowski is researching the impact Ubongo is having,
which you can read more about here: The Impact of an Educational
Media Intervention to Support Children’s Early Learning in Rwanda