Ellenore Angelidis founded Open Hearts Big Dreams to connect her daughter to Ethiopian culture through books. The nonprofit now publishes titles in 15 Ethiopian languages and has distributed more than 600,000 books to young readers.
Open Hearts Big Dreams began in 2008 after Angelidis and her family welcomed a daughter born in Bahir Dar. What started as a personal effort to build a library there evolved into a formal nonprofit in 2016. The group applies lessons from innovation and scale to create books that reflect local scenes and languages.
The organization now offers books in Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya and 12 other Ethiopian languages. It has also launched IBBY Ethiopia and partnered with Rotary clubs to open reading rooms in Metu and Addis Ababa. Local printing allows faster distribution without customs delays.
Angelidis said the goal is to build a sustainable books economy that includes creators, publishers and distributors. Future plans focus on adding more reading rooms nationwide and preserving additional Ethiopian languages through new titles.