Alistair Berkley Charitable Trust
When the Alistair Berkley Charitable Trust facilitated the construction of the Kibera KNLS Library, the kind family did not expect to start reaping the fruits of successful livelihoods so soon. In fact if Alistair was here, he would be smiling.
As we launch Kibera Library
Eastern Africa’s Regional Director Speaks Out
I was excited to get an update from the team about the plans to officially launch the Kibera Library, which are currently underway, and which we expect will pick up momentum in the coming month. The project, since its inception in 2011, has grown into an important resource for the community within and around Kibera, whose population is estimated at 1.5 million
We partnered with the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS), Dr. Caroline Lightowler, and the local community to identify viable location for construction of the library facility. At those early stages, the team was really challenged by people who believed that the facility would better be used for other purposes, including setting it up as a health centre. The Alistair Berkley Trust came in as a donor, and funded this unique pilot, which would challenge the notion that knowledge is a secondary need to people, especially vulnerable communities. The Trust funded the first and second phases of the library, which was opened to users in 2012. The second phase is currently being kitted with equipment.
The library has proved to be an invaluable resource to the community which is fast growing beyond access to literature: it has provided a well-equipped centre, with the support of additional donors and well-wishers, where about 20 schools from the area can have their library lessons and interact with a variety of books and content that bring their lessons to life. It currently has a stock of 11,213 books on its shelves.
It has also provided a place where the imaginations of young children can be stimulated in reading sessions, and the love for books planted in their young minds. A group of girls from the neighbourhood schools came together, using this space as their base, to regularly meet up and talk about everyday issues that affect them. And most recently, our space has given more than 280 young people an opportunity to come together, and get training in life skills that they need, and a chance to graduate into the National Youth Service system.
One thing became clear to me; the infrastructure we helped set up was a crucible filled with a lot of potential, and topped up with a lot of uncertainty about the direction it would take, at the point of inception. And by working closely with the staff members in the library, and opening up to listen to the community’s most pertinent needs, we have been able to demonstrate the impact information access can have in improving livelihoods and providing alternatives to securing better livelihoods for people. Facilitating knowledge exchange, embracing openness and stimulating imaginations on how information can be converted into currency has helped adopt the library as an essential part of the community. The number of community members using the facility has grown to an average of 300 people per day. The staff there now regularly gets all manner of requests for information that might seem trivial, but which has the potential to change lives.
Services now provided include Tablet hour program (computer programs for children) where children can learn how to use the tablets and access educative software preloaded for revision by eLimu, who collaborates with Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) curriculum development department. It also provides Adult, Junior and Institutional lending; Reference; User education; Outreach to primary schools; Special programs such as mentorship for pupils; Inter library lending; Consultancy services; Advisory library services; Practical training for students on attachment; HIV/AIDS information dissemination; and Language programs through book clubs. The direction the library, and particularly the knowledge node, is taking speaks to the importance of our work as knowledge brokers, and the importance of making our knowledge products as relevant as possible to the people we serve: our beneficiaries. The facility is used to organise motivational talks for the youth, it hosts a girls’ club, as well as inter-school reading club competitions, talent shows, debates, and reading tents to name a few.
A cultural corner in the library will help preserve collections of indigenous artefacts, knowledge and content.
Our vision is a region where all people have the necessary knowledge, skills and opportunities to access equitable, affordable technology, both through the hardware we provide, which is an important enabler, but also through the technical knowledge & skills that help them improve their well-being. The needs may vary greatly, depending on the context, but we need to work even harder to ensure that all of our programmes take a deliberate effort in growing our knowledge activities, in order to reach as many as possible with the lessons we take with us from the field. The growing utility of Kibera Library is a testament to the impact access to knowledge, as a resource, can have to a community.
By doing this, we will ensure that we will continue to respond to the most pertinent needs of the communities we serve.
We look forward to its official launch, and to working with even more like-minded programs and organisations such as the National Youth Service, to build on this momentum and change lives.
The Testimonies
My life will never be the same
The story of one girl’s plight and survival in Kibera
Life for 14 year-old Millicent, born in a family of five children has been a difficult one. The second born in a single-parent family, she was brought up believing that life was unfair. Her family would most times go without and sleep hungry. Her mother sold vegetables on the street at Kijiji-Southlands slum in Langata to make ends meet. They live in a single-roomed house without power and running water. This meant that part of her day was spent on lining up in the wee-hours of the morning and late in the evening in search of water. At night the story changed. No one was allowed to venture outside the house. A kerosene wick would provide light for the entire house. A kasuku[1] was their toilet in the night, then it is anyone’s guess whose duty it would be to drain it in the morning.
When the Government launched free primary school education for all school going children, Millicent and her siblings had their opportunity at life. She joined Anajali Primary School and slowly started to build her grades in school albeit amid many challenges. This time getting food was the least of her families worries. They would be fed at school on a staple diet comprising cereals and porridge.
When I met Millicent recently, she could not stop her tears from flowing. She was so excited that finally she would go to secondary school and achieve her dreams of becoming a nurse. She would become the exemplary example her siblings would follow and would make her mother proud. She had learned to use the tablet as a tool for study and google research.
She recounted the days she sent straining under a smoky wick lamp, shared among her five siblings. At times when she woke up in the morning to go to school she would have to grope in the darkness, dress up and get to school with her uniform wrong-side up. (The lamp had dimmed last night). She remembered how she would struggle to finish her homework before the paraffin in the wick lamp ran out; even at times combining her chores and doing her homework while her mother was cooking.
Then it was announced in her school that the construction of Kibera KNLS[2] library had been completed. The facility that was near her school provided reading space for children and was also open until 6:30PM. She knew she would have enough time and reading space to study; do her homework before getting home giving her time to help her mother with the chores.
This was a big change. Her grades began to improve. Her mother was able to work longer making a bit more time and money from her business. Even when she got to Standard Eight, Millicent was not afraid that she had not studied well for her Primary School Education Certificate. Her school continued to produce brilliant students.
Millicent finished her Primary School education top of her class and she knows that it was because the Kibera KNLS Library provided the space and encouragement she required to make it through. She knows that life for her family will continue to improve as her siblings and friends use the opportunity presented in the library effectively.
Little ‘thief’ reforms
Changing the attitude and behaviour of slum children
What do three five and six year-olds have in common as they walk in to a library? One of them (let’s call him Rex) is carrying a pair of pliers. He intends to vandalise the cabling on the wall for recycled copper. A second one (let’s name him Rodger) has a plastic paper bag with the intention of packing some comic books from the kids’ section for sale at the open-air market. The third boy, (say Ted) taller than his age (he is only five but is already three-feet tall) becomes the spy, to watch out for the attendees just in case the mission is compromised.
They move in unaware that CCTV cameras remain focused on activities going on. Rex walks to the corner, pulls out his weapon from under his oversized t-shirt and looks for a loophole in the trunking. The rest of the library already full of quiet students remains buried in reading oblivious of the unfolding events. As he squats looking for the right spot, his height remains an advantage. One cannot spot him. The steel trunking is not easy to damage. In frustration now he begins to knock on the corners in a bid perhaps to loosen the screws and get in to the cabling works.
Meanwhile, Rodger has found his was to the kids’ section and without fretting, has begun packing his loot. Unaware that the bag will be too heavy to carry, Rodger piles up. Ted is roaming the isles like a busy body careful not to raise the attention of the readers or the attendees until Rex begins knocking the steel trunking. They are all unaware that the attendees had already been watching them on the CCTV control station and had been waiting for them to set out.
“Hush,” one reader urges Rex to stop the knocking.
His mission is yet complete. He peers from under the tables and sees that Rodger has some loot and he has yet to find his way. He steadily walks along the trunking line to a different position knocking his way. He is so engrossed in his search that he fails to realise that he has just hit his head against Librarian’s knees who had been watching him from his arrival at the facility with his friends.
“Stop!” shouts the Librarian.
Realising that he’s been caught, he tries to hide his tool (the wide and sort of heavy pliers) but the Librarian swiftly snatches it away. Rodger and Ted who had realised the trouble and had wanted to escape were easily picked up and escorted to one of the empty rooms at the Library for ‘interrogation’ joined by Rex.
*****
This sounds like a dramatic story in the making of a movie. These are actual and frequent events, which occurred at the Kibera KNLS library. When the boys were questioned about their venture they revealed that they had been sent out by ‘some adults’ for the items they were planning to pick up. Instead of adding value to the existence of the library – the first of its kind in an informal settlement, some evil elements in society choose to cull development and prosperity with mediocrity. Such a shame!
The Chief Librarian Mary Kinyanjui put the boys through counselling educational program and are currently enrolled at a school nearby where they not only continue to enjoy the services of the library but have also become regular readers at the facility.
The library is not only a reading place, but also a point of rescue for wayward people who end up building beautiful prospects as faithful citizens.
My confidence has been built
Making of an MC
Babu, as he is popularly know by his school mates in Raila Village, where the Kibera KNLS Library is situated, is a talented 13 year-old boy barely beyond his broken voice. But the young man is full of energy, charmed by the drive to be an outspoken MC. And he does not stop there. Babu generates a unique aura around him that he is loved by both young and old so much that he is even invited to attend adult events because of his budding skill.
I asked him when he grew his talent.
“Had there been no public events at the (Kibera) Library where my school goes to read, I would have remained on my home mirror practicing to myself. The events I have attended here have given me the confidence to perform public speaking and get my gimmicks correct. I am really grateful for the opportunity.”
[1] Kasuku is a cooking fat brand held in a reusable and recyclable plastic container. The uses of container are myriad including fetching water and at night as a potty for safe and accessible sanitation used by children and adults. These containers are also used by other cooking fat brands
[2] KNLS = Kenya National Library Services