Daily visitors

Marcos Evua

"The library is a place that's quiet enough to study, 

nothing distracts you from what you need to be doing!"

Daily visitors

Sacha, Desteri, Meshack and Phillis 

With their favorite books

Daily visitors

Hillary Omwando

"The library is such a nice place, it has helped me so much, 

not me alone, but the people around here."

Daily visitors

Peter Midega

"We've been yearning to have something like this for a long time, since we haven't developed a culture of reading in Kenya, this library will encourage that!"

Daily visitors

Willibrod and Bachi

Come in every day to read and write every day.

Lunch at Maria's Farm

Hey everyone!

This past weekend Maria invited all the mama's, Esther and myself over to her banana farm for a celebratory lunch. I expected to be over at her farm for maybe 2 hours, I guess I still haven't learned after 4 months in Kenya, that lunch, it's a whole day affair.

Before heading over to Maria's for lunch, Esther and I visited one of the mama's at her home. She lives close to Maria's, in a typical Kenyan housing project: one long building with 5 doors, each door accessing a one room home. Inside the home, a curtain divides the sleeping area from the living area. Scholastica, the mother we were visiting, lives in one of these homes with her husband and their two children. Scholastica is one of the most dedicated mama's of the project and was excited to find out that her husband was very supportive! He is a picki-picki driver in Busia, and he thinks it is very important that his two daughters, and his wife, get more opportunities in education than he did.

Scholastica, Esther and I headed over to Maria's farm after a little photo shoot at her home and some chai. Of course we were the first ones to arrive, and Maria informed us we would all be going to her church that Saturday, after which we would have a grand lunch. The mothers slowing started trickling in and around 12:30 PM we headed over the Maria's community church. The priest blessed our program and my journey home, and we listened to his sermon which was mostly in Swahili with the occasional English word.

On our way back to the farm the mama asked me lots of questions about my life at home, my work and when I was planning on coming back. I think they finally felt at ease to ask me more personal questions and it was nice to share and have good conversation with the women I have been working with for 3 months.

The lunch was amazing, Maria and her family prepared all the traditional Kenyan dishes I had had over the couple of months: brown and white ugali, pumpkin, chapati, beans, lentils, fish and beef stew, rice, cabbage, sukumawiki, matoke and lots of sodas and beers. It was delicious! Mze, Maria's husband, met all the mama's and spoke to them on the importance of moving forward with their education, to help themselves and their children. I handed out the certificates, now signed by the district commissioner, and a picture of the mama's graduation on Wednesday. Maria brought out the stereo set and we danced to Ugandan and Kenyan music for the rest of the late, hot afternoon.

Celebrating Mama-Mtoto!

Hi everyone!

I just finished cleaning up the library after yesterday's celebration meeting, so I wanted to update you on the great day we had yesterday!

After a lot of preperation from Esther, Maria and I, the big celebration day was finally here! The certificates were printed and signed (just not by the district commissioner, more on that later), the snacks and drinks had arrived, the tent and sign-in booth were set up and the mama's were preparing a dance for the celebration, as we were putting the final touches to the Mama-Mtoto banner. One of the mamas, Lennah, had suggested early on that we all buy T-shirts for the function, to promote the project. The mothers were really enthusiastic, and Maria ended up sponsoring all the mamas for half of the costs, the mamas contributing the other half themselves. Susy and I also bought a T-shirt, and Maria bought a couple of extras for other "friends" of the project.

In the morning, I once again went to the District Commissioner's office, to confirm his presence at our celebration and to have him sign the certificates for the mamas. I had been to his office a couple of times already, but he hadn't been around. This particular morning I had a classic run-in with bureaucracy, waiting for hours for one commissioner, finally meeting his deputy, who sent me to another officer, who eventually confirmed what I had seen coming already: the DC was not in today and would not be coming to our function. Therefore, the mamas received their certificates yesterday, symbolically graduating from the program, but handed them in at the end so I could have them signed today. This morning, the DC apologized for not being able to come to the celebration and signed all the certificates, which reaffirms an old Dutch saying: de aanhouder wint (the one who perseveres wins)!

The celebration got started an hour and a half after the scheduled time, but Maria insisted we were on Kenyan time, and the guests who arrived on time wouldn't mind. Geoffrey Mbweke, a teacher from Busia and the artist who created the cover of the Busia “Wonder of Friendship” book, was the host for our event and he kept everyone entertained throughout the day. Maria spoke of the success of the program and the future library to be built in cooperation with KNLS and Maria's Libraries. Just that morning she received the model of the library and she showed it with great pride to the guests and the press. I gave a small speech on the achievement of the project and the mamas, and my experiences with the Busia Community Library. The mamas read the story from Busia in the 4 languages it was published in and the children from Busia Township, the neigboring school, reflected on some of the classes they had attended at the library.

We finished the meeting with a small speech from the Probation Officer of the District Commissioner's office, the official they had sent after my regular visits to other offices. It was pretty hilarious to see how he tried to connect his line of work to the library, but in the end he concluded that illiteracy and crime go hand in hand, and therefore, the library was a great help to his efforts to rehabilitate people into the community. He handed out the certificates to the mama's and we were invited by Geoffrey to enjoy the pillaw and soda's Maria had provided for everyone!

I think we all had a great day and the mama's were all very proud and excited that they were the ones being celebrated. They loved being graduates and they wore their t-shirts with pride. But, this wasn't the last time we all saw each other! We have a visit planned to Maria's farm this coming Saturday and most of the mamas will come to the computer class on Monday! So thankfully, we didn't have to say goodbye just yet :).

I will update you on both events in the coming days, writing some of my last blog posts before I finish my work for Maria's Libraries and trade Busia in for Rotterdam in just two short weeks!

Cheers,
Harmke

Another computer lesson and home visit

Just a quick update from Busia: today Katie and I taught another computer class and I went on a home visit across from the library, one of the mama's literally lives 20 meters from the library. Coming Wednesday is the celebration meeting, so more updates then. Here are some pictures of today, enjoy :)

The Last Mama-Mtoto meeting

Hello everyone!

Today was the day: the final Mama-Mtoto meeting! After 4 months of meeting, writing and sharing, the mamas came in one final time to talk about the final storybook, their experiences and the responses of their children to the Hyena and the Fox!

The mamas were surprisingly on time, and we started with sharing some general thoughts on Mama-Mtoto and what it had brought the mamas. Maria shared her experience of the Mama-Mtoto program, which I thought I would share with you!

“But going through this program, it has been a warm-up, it has awoken some spirit inside. Most of you had given up, you were doing your business, getting money, but now you know about the books, and empowering your children through books. Even such a small program involves so many people, Jennie from Canada, Susan and Harmke from Holland and Ariel from America. And now if you go to Lamu right now, it is like they knew you long ago isn't it? A library it is more than books, it brings people together, I don't know how to talk about it, I am very happy. The way we advertised this program, there was an application, which is not easy for you and most of the people here want money for the program. But you can't buy this knowledge! Here we have benefitted from the good works of so many people. And I hope you will bring your friends, and once in a while you will come to the library and bring your friends. […] I want to thank you very much for contributing your time and your money, may God bless you!”

As usual, the mothers shared their experiences with the storybook of the week, The Hyena and the Fox. The children really enjoyed the wordsearch we included in the book and the “connecting-the-dots” assignment, Susy created for the book! The kids commented on the dress of people in Garissa, some noticing that the women are completely covered and one of the children asked his mother, “aren't they hot, because it covers everything? Why do they wear that?”

To finish my report and get some reflective comments from the mothers, I conducted the last focus group, focussing on sustainability, cultural exchange and evaluation. The mothers were very positive about the program and some thought I would share some of their comments with you.

“My kids learned something that they had not been exposed to, they learned new stories.”

“The acting assignment really build their confidence, they would not just act in front of their parents and peers like that but now they feel like they can.”

“The books have enriched my children and I would never have had these books if I hadn't participated. I feel like it has stimulated my educational path and I realize I am still learning something new. My husband asks me, are you going to class? He sees that I am using my time usefully and properly. He knows I have to do something to advance myself.

“My children wonder, did our mother really go to school? They would look at me like I a illiterate and like I had never been to school. But now my children respect me and see that I am literate. Moreover, the MM program gave me the opportunity to sit down with my children and read a storybook to them, […] there is more of a reading culture. At school they spend all the time on the curriculum so they have no time to read, but now we do it at home. I had never imagined I would touch a computer, I thought I would spoil it when i touched it, but now I am on track, now I can learn.”

We finished the meeting with an update on the celebration meeting next week and decided that we will all go to Maria's farm for a small lunch next week Saturday to celebrate the accomplishments of the mamas!

Have a great weekend,

Harmke

Computer classes

Hi everyone!

Ariel suggested I write a blog about the computer lessons I've started giving to the mama's of the Mama-Mtoto project, so I'll give you all a little update!

From the first moment Susy and I met the mama's and asked them if they had any suggestions for extra meetings we could have, or projects we could work on, they suggested computer lessons. We were immediatly enthusiastic, but couldn't find the time when Susy was still here, we were simply to busy with the Mama-Mtoto project and our BA thesis. So during Susy's last week I promised the mothers I would set up the computer lessons when I got back from Nairobi.

Setting up computer lessons wasn't without any bumps in the road; the projector I had ordered fell through in the hour before the lesson (the guy suddenly wanted to charge me 3000 KsH instead of 500 KsH we had agreed on!), leaving me with one netbook to teach 10-15 mothers Word and e-mail on. Moreover, the power supply had been especially shaky the past couple of days and I was hoping my netbook would make it through the whole lesson. And finally, how was I going to teach these mothers how to use a computer? Computers are definitely something I take for granted - growing up with a dad who works for IBM who let me use his laptop and PC's from a very young age - but most of these mothers had never used a computer before. I prepared a powerpoint presentation (when I still thought I had a projector at my disposal) and decided to go with the flow, and see how the mothers would interact with the computer as we went along.

We definitely had to start from square one: using a mouse was a huge struggle, but once the mothers got a bit more used to the mouse, we started using some basic Word features, such as changing font and font size, saving a document and underlining a sentence. Esther brought the netbook she had been given by Smallbean for the Citizen Archivist project, so we ended up splitting the group into two smaller groups, with 5 mamas sharing a netbook (and at the end of the meeting 6). We spent a great deal of the meeting just practicing, because, as I noticed early on, practice definitely makes perfect when it comes to computers, and the mamas were quick to catch on, eager to take notes, try new features and patiently waiting their turn to highlight a word and make it bold.

We immediately scheduled a second meeting, which was yesterday, and it was another great meeting, with a recap of the lessons learned last week Thursday and a bit of new information on how to print a document, how to align left/centre and right and how to change the font color. We did a short introduction on how to use the internet, which we will further expand on during the next meeting (next week Monday). I am super happy to tell you that Katy Kirby, who moved here last week with her husband Miles who works for IPA, will be taking over the computer lessons and is planning to volunteer at the library when I leave!

Cheers,
Harmke

Hey everyone!

It's already been a week since the last mama-mtoto meeting, sorry for the late update! However, in the mean time, a lot of other exciting stuff has happened here, so I will update you on that as well!

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about having a Mama-Mtoto meeting with the children of the mamas present, since the mamas could not just bring their 4-6 year olds, they would bring all their kids. Which would mean a minimum of 60 people (15 mamas with a minimum of 3 kids, but most of them have more!). However, Esther and Maria were really enthusiastic, so we decided to go ahead with planning this special meeting. Instead of our normal MM day, the meeting was on a Saturday, so that the children would be free from school and Maria arranged a couple of women to come and cook rice and beans for all mamas and their children. Esther picked up a big party tent from Maria's farm and about 30 chairs, and we were ready for Saturday morning!

When the mamas and their children arrived, it was great to finally meet the children the mamas have been telling us so much about over these past few months. Around 11:00 we decided to start and more children and mamas came in as we were going through the assignments. After a round of introductions and the usual opening prayer, Esther asked the children if they could perform the plays they prepared (which was the assignment for the Elangata Wuas book). The result was amazing, some of the children had worked together during lunch hour at school and had come up with new endings and extra characters for the stories. Three children even prepared their very own story, which they recited in front of the whole group! The mamas looked on proudly, clapping and laughing at every play and story.

After the plays and storytelling, we went over the assignments for the new book, “The Hyena and the Fox”, from Garissa. This book tells the story of a hungry fox, who eats all the sheep in the area where nomads live. The community decides to set a trap to catch the fox, to punish him for stealing their sheep. When the fox is caught, the people tie him to a tree, dig a big hole and fill it with firewood to burn the fox. The fox cries loudly and a hungry hyena passes by to find the fox still tied to the tree, as the people have left to let the fire get hot. The fox explains to the hyena that his uncle tied him to the tree because he is too thin and wouldn't eat the sheep his uncle had caught for him. The hyena decides to untie the fox and promises to eat the sheep. The fox quickly flees the scene, as the people return and ask the hyena what he is doing. When he explains, they decide he is too foolish and greedy and burn him instead of the fox!

The Garissa book was illustrated by Sammy Wafula, and printed in 3 languages: Kisomali, Kiswahili and English. The kids and mothers really liked the story, but they were getting hungry, so we decided it was time for lunch! As the children ate their rice, beans and greens, Esther and the mamas discussed the coming computer lesson meeting (on the 22^nd). The meeting was this past Thursday and it was very exciting to see the mothers working on the computers, for some of them it was their first time. We dealt with some of the basics – what is hardward/software?, how do you use the mouse – and I taught them a little bit about how to use Microsoft Word. You realize how difficult seemingly easy things can be, such as making the text bold or underlined. However, I do know the first time I started using a computer, it was all very alien to me as well, so practice makes perfect!

Before the computer meeting, this past Wednesday, Esther and I visited 5 of the mothers at their homes in Mayenge. These mothers live the furthest away from the library, a 2 hour walk, but Esther and I took a piki, which took about half an hour. The mothers were very hospitable, and I drank enough coca-cola for a whole week! At every mama's house we talked about when the mother reads to her kids, which is their favorite book, how the program has impacted their day-to-day routine and what they would add to the program if they were the directors! Overall, their answers were very helpful for the report I'm writing and it was also just great to meet the husbands and other family members of the women that I feel I'm getting to know a bit better every day.

Finally, Esther and I have been working on the celebration meeting (October 5^th) already, deciding on the guest list, meeting with the district commissioner, who has promised to be our guest of honor, and creating certificates for the mamas, besides other logistical issues that need to be figured out for the big celebration!

I will keep you updated on all our progress, but for now: Kwaheri and have a good weekend!

The Elangata Wuas Book

Hi everyone!

After a week and a half of travelling, and of course, coordinating the printing of the Mama-Mtoto books from a different location, I have been back in Busia for a couple of days! Susan flew back to Holland last Thursday, and she will be starting the introducation to her masters program tomorrow.

This past Thursday we had our seventh Mama-Mtoto meeting, with the newest storybook created by the mamas in Elangata Wuas. But before we discussed the new book, the mamas were excited to share their experiences with the Lamu book, the White Spot. Most of the children drew one of the scenes depicted in the book, and all the children were curious about the snake going into the stomach of the lead character. Maria was afraid that this part of the story would be too scary for the children, but none of the mothers mentioned their kids being afraid. However, the children did ask why the stars were red and green, “they are supposed to be white!”, as one of the mothers remembered her children saying.

Related to the cultural exchange aspect of the project, the kids did indeed ask their mothers why the people in Lamu dressed so differently and lived in different houses. “So why are the mothers covered in veils”, asked one of the children, pointing at the picture in the Lamu book of the participating mothers. “Why does Busia have so many languages?”, asked another child when she noticed that the Lamu book was translated into 2 (compared to Busia's 4). Since none of the mothers had ever been to Lamu, it was an exciting experience for them and their kids to get a small look into the differences and similarities between Busia and Lamu. Some of the mamas mentioned that they didn't imagine this was also in Kenya, it was so different!

After discussing the Lamu book, we moved on to the Elangata Wuas book: “Entito oo Ntoyie and Children in a Bush”. In the book, a young Maasai mother gives birth to a son and daughter one day, while she was walking through the forest. The mother would collect milk for the family with a white calabash, and sing to her children when it was safe for them to come out and drink the milk. When ogres visiting the villages heard the mother sing to her children, they planned to sing as well, to be able to eat the children. However, their voices were too deep and the children didn't fall for the singing. To be able to sing like the mother, the ogres visited a diviner, who adviced them not to eat insects for two weeks. In the end the children come out of the boma, get attacked by the ogres but manage to escape. When their mother returns, the children initially do not come out of the boma, but they realize it is their mother singing and they tell her everything. From that moment on, the children are very careful when leaving the boma.

The mothers really liked the Elangata Wuas story, but they did think it was a bit too short. Therefore, the mothers and their children will create a different ending to the story, as next meeting's activity! What will be even more fun, is that the mothers are bringing their children to the next meeting, so we can see the interaction between the mothers and their kids. Moreover, we asked the mothers to have their children prepare a short play relating to the Elangata Wuas story, so I'm very curious to see what the kids come up with!

In the meantime I will be working on promotional material for the Mama-Mtoto project and finalizing the results of the research Susan and I conducted on the recruitment, effectiveness and sustainability of the program. Moreover, Maria has expressed great interest in further fundraising for the new library, so I will assist her in her pursuits as much as possible!

Cheers,

Harmke

Mama-Mtoto Meeting: The Lamu Book

Hi all!

During the last week of our official UCU internship, we visited the home of one of the mamas who lives in Bulanda, near Busia town. We interacted with her kids, asked her more about her experiences with the program, and watched her read the Busia book with her children. It was such a great experience to see the children's reactions during the storybook reading (they love the Kiluhya version!) and we saw a new side of the project. We have only been meeting with the mamas so it was great to see how the children get involved and how they enjoy the benefits of Mama-Mtoto. Though we only managed to visit one mama during the internship (they are all very busy!), I know that Harmke will try to visit as many as she can before she leaves in October. We learnt a great deal more about the impact that Mama-Mtoto is having at these homes, so it was extremely valuable.

This past Thursday (18/08) we had another Mama-Mtoto meeting in Busia and it went great, despite that only eight mamas came. First, we discussed the experiences with the Busia book. As one of the assigned activities, we asked that the children create an ending for the story, as it ends at a climactic point. The stories that the children told were extremely creative! There were also many drawings of the various characters of the story and it was clear that the children thoroughly enjoyed the Busia book! One mother said: “My kids liked the story in this book, they do not like the hare though, because he was so cunning and clever so he spoiled everything!” The children also recognized that their mothers had recorded the story, seeing their pictures and names in the beginning, which they really liked.

After we finished discussing the Busia book, we distributed the Lamu book, which arrived just that morning! The mamas were very excited to see what story the mothers from another community had recorded. The Lamu book – The White Spot – is about a couple who are unable to have a child. They go to see a traditional healer, who offers them a red rose (for a girl) or a purple rose (for a boy). After choosing the red rose, the healer warns them that the girl should not be rained on, and soon after they get a beautiful baby girl who they call Doajeupe – The White Spot. Doajeupe goes to school and one day walks home in the rain when her parents do not pick her up on time. A snake enters her body from the rain and consumes her until she cannot walk. The parents search for the healer, who turns out to be dead, and they go across the sea to find a queen to heal their daughter. When she does, Doajeupe marries the prince and everyone lives happily ever after.

After reading the story, the mothers discussed whether Doajeupe had gone back to school or if she entered into early marriage and left school. It was so interesting to see them discuss that it would be bad if she had not finished school! In the end they decided that it had taken so long to heal her that by the time she married she was too old to be in school anyway. After reading the Lamu description, we discussed how 90% of the people in Lamu are Muslim, and how they are currently taking a break from the program for Ramadan.

The mothers asked us during the meeting whether it would be possible to sell the Busia book in the community, as their friends are asking to buy a copy. The mamas argued that everyone would want a locally published story – this might be a great idea for the library to raise funds!

We asked the mamas whether their perception of the library had changed through the Mama-Mtoto program and one mama answered: “I have seen the library many times, but that is a place for kids and teachers, now I realize that it is a place for me as well.” It is so interesting to see how they are growing to love reading and the mamas said they would take their children to the library after the project was finished. Many mamas said that they only ever read the Bible, but now they actually want to read other books!

One mama said: “In my house, I would only think of reading a Bible. But now I find it interesting to read other books, it has definitely changed the attitude, there is a lot of sharing and happiness. I would never imagine I could enjoy anything else but now I can enjoy these things with my children.”

Another added: “My brain had gone to sleep completely, I would have never thought of picking up a book. But now I am awake, I want to read and my kids are also very excited they want to read more storybooks. They know now that there is a library and they will read more. The future is bright and I see reading in their future!”

It is clear that the Mama-Mtoto project has created a reading culture among the participants, which is extremely motivating to see!

After the focus group we conducted, we celebrated Harmke's 22^nd birthday with all the participants in the library! They sang for her, we ate cake, and we took a group photo. It was great to socialize with everyone for a while because this was my last Mama-Mtoto meeting!

On Friday we presented our research project to Maria and Esther at Maria's farm. We have almost finished the internship report which presents all of our results! It has been great to evaluate Mama-Mtoto and research how it could be improved next time.

It has been amazing to work with this project and I will definitely be keeping myself up to date with the progress that is made. I want to take this opportunity to thank Maria's Libraries for allowing me to work with the program and providing such a great learning opportunity! From now on, it will be Harmke keeping you all updated as she is staying in Busia for another two months.

Cheers,

Susan and Harmke

Mama-Mtoto Meeting: The Busia Book Arrives!

Dear all,

Another two weeks have passed and last Thursday we held the fifth Mama-Mtoto meeting (the second meeting Harmke and I attended). It was a nerve-wrecking few days before the meeting as we were trying to get the Busia book printed in time! After several samples with pages missing, crooked, and cut roughly we were anxious to see the state of the 18 books that were supposed to have arrived much earlier than they did – the morning of the meeting. Fortunately, they looked great! Super relieved and excited to show the mamas the story they had recorded in print form, we headed to the meeting. The mamas that came were much more timely this week, giving everyone more time to reflect on their experiences and also more time to admire the final product of the Busia story, The Wonders of Friendship. For those who are curious, the story is about three friends: a hare, a hyena, and a tortoise. The friends decide to plant and harvest groundnuts, but the hare keeps avoiding the workload. After the hyena and tortoise do all the work, the hare tries to get his hands on the final result: the groundnuts. Having anticipated this, the two friends had covered the granary containing the nuts with glue. The hare therefore got stuck as he attempted to break in, and that's where the story ends. The story is fully illustrated and written in four languages: English, Kiswahili, Kiteso, and Kisamia.

Before presenting the mamas with the book, we discussed the extra two weeks they spent with the Mcheshi Goes to School book. None of the mothers tried the clapping game (where the children have to clap when a certain word is read), and most did not do the color game (where the children have to point to a certain color on every page), although some did their own version of this game and others colored. The mothers said that the children loved the wordsearches! They wanted more of them, and also more difficult ones as some of the children said it was too easy.

Finally it was time to present the mamas with The Wonders of Friendship. They were all extremely happy to see them and clapped for us (a clap that should resonate to all those who contributed to the project in one way or another, well done!). For some minutes we just sat and looked at the book – the mamas happily seeing their picture and names on the second page (although only the names and pictures of those mamas who were present at the second meeting in June were in there, which is a bit of a shame. We will change this for the e-book). The plastic covers we had brought from Nairobi were, unfortunately, a bit too big for the books but we might be able to fix it with some tape. Esther read the book in Kisamia to everyone, and the Busia description at the end, only in English. The mamas were smiling throughout. After, all the mamas read the book together in Kiswahili.

The next assignment Esther gave was for the mamas to write a summary of the story in their notebooks. She gave them 10 minutes and the mamas nervously grabbed their pens. Many sneaked a peek into the book for help when Esther was out of the room – we told them that it wasn't a test and everyone laughed. Afterwards, one summary in each language was read out loud (only one mother wrote in English, most wrote in Kiswahili, and a couple in Kisamia). Since none of the mamas wrote in Kiteso, two mamas read part of the Kiteso text from the book.

Next Esther introduced the new activities for the Busia book: retrying the color pointing and clapping games, drawing “what happens next” (or a character from the book if the child is too young to understand), and a new wordsearch. Then Harmke and I had prepared another focus group for our own research project concerning the husband's response to, and interaction with, the Mama-Mtoto project. Finally, the meeting closed with refreshments and socializing.

As for the printing of the storybooks, the status is as follows: the Busia book has already been sent to Elangata Wuas and is currently being printed and sent to Garissa and Lamu (these two sites are not meeting in August because of Ramadan, so they are not in a rush to receive the books). Next is the Lamu book, which is also finished! We are having a sample sent here as soon as possible and then we can hopefully order the batch of books for Busia this week. The Elangata Wuas book is almost done and will be next in line after Lamu. Garissa will be printed last because it still requires some more editing work and we are missing some information from the site. All things considered the project is coming along well!

That's all the updates we have for now. You'll hear more from us in the coming two weeks!

Cheers,

Susan and Harmke

Video of the Garissa mobile library

I love this video about the mobile unit affiliated with the Garissa library. The mobile unit is a camel! Head librarian Rashid Farah explains how The camel is loaded with books and walks to area schools to lend books to children.

View the youtube video here.

Maria's Libraries is working with the library in Garissa to implement a literacy program (the Mama Mtoto Story Time Program, developed and implemented as a collaboration between Maria's Libraries and AfricaSOMA, and to which Harmke and Susan refer below). As part of this program we are producing four childrens' books, one from each community participating in the program. The one from Garissa is a traditional story told in Somali, and we will publish it as told in Somali, Swahili, and in English--all in one book!