Imad Abbas is a software developer and social entrepreneur from Sudan, who with only 21 years has already won multiple awards. He is the founder of EnlightenBook, an educational mobile app for personal training and development.

The application makes learning easier for students and 9-5 employees who do not have the time for traditional education. Through summarized audiobooks, discussion rooms, habit building and a library of 10+ categories, the app provides an augmented reading experience fit for a fast-moving world. Readers can instantly apply book theories and practices to their everyday life through the app’s habit builder and tracker capability.

EnligtenBook partnered with Haggar Group to make the app accessible for visually impaired users through the Basic Education Needs (BEN) Library initiative. The audio library of public school curriculums is a more economic and accessible alternative to Braille (touch reading and writing system for blind persons) for local students across Sudan. BEN library was launched in 21 schools across five states empowering more than 100 visually impaired students. The initiative aims to bring back the 89% of visually impaired students (about 13,350 students) that are denied education due to the lack of inclusive resources.

The EnlightenBook app has more than 1000 downloads and was nominated by the Arab Youth Center as one of the top 14 social initiatives in 2019 in the Arab World. It is recognized in the Middle East and North America. Imad Abbas is an alumnus of the DMZYYZ 2020 program (headquartered in Toronto and ranked among the top accelerators by UBI Global). EnlightenBook also won the MENA Start Up competition in 2019 and came 4th in STEM project in the UAE. Imad was recently featured in a webinar on mapping “Empowerment and Social Inclusion” opportunities in the Sudanese market hosted by 249Startups and Orange Corners Sudan.