About Us
Helvi Itenge
Founder
Helvi is an award-winning author of children’s books, and Founder of Yambeka Children Media (YCM) a community Social Enterprise created to promote African languages, tales and the culture of reading.
Helvi completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology at Wilberforce University in Ohio, and a Master’s Degree in Education at the University of Illinois. As a young mother Helvi struggled to find toddler’s books written in Oshiwambo or containing the tales she grew up with.
Unable to find anything that was appealing to young children, she decided to develop her own range of colorful reads reflecting her cultural heritage. Since then she has written books targeting children of 0 – 13 years in English, Oshiwambo and Swahili, and looks forwards to having them translated into as many African languages as possible.
To date she has published more than 13 children books. Helvi has attended and exhibited at international book fairs in Cape Town, Nairobi, and the world biggest book fair in Frankfurt. As well as establishing Yambeka Children Media, Helvi is also the founder Namibian Book Fair (NBF).