Submitted
2025 Global Learning Challenge

AnGo

Team Leader
Kristin Van Busum
AnGo is a mobile-first, offline app that helps children in Central America learn to read through culturally relevant storytelling and personalized learning. At the heart of AnGo are local women educators trained in Teach at the Right Level methods, who use generative AI to co-create engaging stories that reflect children’s lives, languages, and traditions. Learners access these "learning journeys" through...
What is the name of your organization?
Project Alianza
What is the name of your solution?
AnGo
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
An offline, mobile platform using AI and local educators to deliver personalized, culturally relevant literacy support.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Boston, MA, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
GTM
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Across Central America, an estimated 7 million children are in need of foundational reading support due to poverty, limited access to quality education, and post-COVID learning loss. Low-income and Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected, with scarce access to trained teachers, culturally relevant materials, or tools to support reading at home. Without intervention, most will reach adolescence without the ability to read fluently—severely limiting their chances of finishing school, accessing decent work, or escaping poverty. This isn’t just an education crisis—it’s a barrier to equity, opportunity, and long-term development.The consequences will ripple across generations.
What is your solution?
AnGo is a mobile-first, offline app that helps children in Central America learn to read through culturally relevant storytelling and personalized learning. At the heart of AnGo are local women educators trained in Teach at the Right Level methods, who use generative AI to co-create engaging stories that reflect children’s lives, languages, and traditions. Learners access these "learning journeys" through the AnGo app, where they listen, read along, and gain access to activities to reinforce learning. Content is tailored to each child’s reading level, determined through an adaptive version of the ASER test, inspired by Teach at the Right Level assessments. Caregivers and teachers receive simple feedback and activities to support learning, while the app works offline after setup to ensuring access in low-connectivity areas. By blending community-led content creation, AI, and proven TaRL pedagogy, AnGo delivers joyful reading support for every child. Link to Video: https://www.projectalianza.org/our-work/ango
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
AnGo serves children in low-resource, rural, and Indigenous communities across Guatemala and Central America, where literacy gaps are most severe. These early gaps have lifelong consequences: children who do not learn to read by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school (Hernandez, 2012). Teachers in these regions are under-resourced, and fewer than 50 percent of rural schools have access to quality learning materials or trained literacy instructors (USAID, 2020). Caregivers, many of whom have limited formal education themselves, often feel unprepared to support learning at home. AnGo provides a scalable, low-cost solution: mobile, offline-first, and personalized. By helping children learn to read, AnGO unlocks long-term gains in education, confidence, and economic opportunity—breaking cycles of poverty and opening doors that last a lifetime.
Solution Team:
Kristin Van Busum
Kristin Van Busum
Founder/CEO