Nominee:

EDU'KENYA

(Visit the project's website: EDU'KENYA)

Presentation of the project

EDU’KENYA’s mobile library is working on improving reading culture by bringing access to reading books in schools. A mobile van has delivered more than 5,000 hardcopy books to schools in Kenya. In the first year with the mobile library, the children could read one day a month at each visit from the van filled with 600 books. The books vary from story books, novels, fairy tales and language books. Most books are donated from schools and private persons from various European countries, such as France and England.

Libraries in Africa are struggling with financial constraints to provide timely and updated information. The joy of reading is an untapped avenue and difficult aspect to inspire for libraries in Kenya. EDU’KENYA has innovatively and creatively found a way to reach out to remote communities in Kenya’s counties and inspire the joy of reading.

When children get to choose, which books to read, it will encourage them to enjoy reading in their everyday lives. A former student states, how the EDU’KENYA has influenced a great part of who, he is today. Before the mobile library came to his primary school, Daniel Kamau did not enjoy reading, and he only studied, what was necessary to pass exams. After the visits from the mobile library, Daniel started to experience the joy of reading.

Impact

EDU’KENYA has reached approximately 50,000 people over the past 10 years, when the team has delivered books to disadvantaged schools in Kenya and has recreated the settings of a school library. At every visit, the volunteer librarians could see the joy and excitement in the children. Furthermore, the children’s written and language skills in English and Swahili have improved with the initiative.

The children have also become more openminded and creative. Instead of only reading books from curriculum, children are taught to choose the books, they would like to read, when the mobile library arrives at the school. The children are then experiencing the joy of reading, when they can dream and travel through stories and use their own imagination.