A 10-year-old girl, Chela – the campaign ambassador for the Yetu Start a Library initiative— partnered with Dr Auma Obama to rally Kenyans to support the first ever book written by a nation at a function held at Farasi Lane Primary School in Nairobi.
Chela is on a four-month campaign to request Kenyans to write stories for a collectively written book that will be published and later stocked with other storybooks in school libraries for more than 10 million pupils like her who study in schools without libraries.
Chela aims to raise Sh30 million from individuals and organisations towards starting an initial 100 libraries in public primary schools across the country. The project will later be scaled until all primary schools countrywide get libraries.
According to research, only two per cent of Kenyan public schools have libraries. Individuals can participate in the initiative by visiting the Yetu Start a Library site, www.yetu.org/startalibrary, and co-author stories at the #StoryForChela page with seven accomplished writers and then donate Sh10 for every word contributed.
The collectively written book will then be published at the end of the campaign and all the contributors will be acknowledged at the back as co- authors of the book!
During the event, the Standard Four pupil at Farasi Lane primary school, called on individuals and corporates to seize the opportunity and make a difference in the lives of Kenyan children by giving them access to storybooks, an essential resource that has a great impact in child literacy and academic excellence.
“Over the years, children have been denied something very important; Story books. We need story books so that we can read stories about our people, society and ourselves. Stories are a fun way to learn new things and excel,” Chela said. She added: “I have found a way but who will help me? Who will help my school?
When I was alone my voice was small but now we are many and our voices cannot be ignored. Kenyans we need our stories. Help us get our stories. Your donations become words, become books, and the books become libraries.”
On her part Dr Auma Obama emphasised the great need and urgency of ensuring that schools have libraries and that children have access to books and are encouraged to read storybooks regularly.
“As citizens, we want to write this story together so that we can have a story for all the children in Kenya to read,” Auma noted. “Let us provide our children with books to improve their literacy because research has shown that hundreds of children in Standard Seven and Eight cannot read a single word in English or Kiswahili.
It is wrong! We need to change and the way to change the system is to put libraries in schools and give the children books. We want a book in each child’s hands and that’s why we want these libraries to be started.”
This campaign, dubbed Story for Chela is spearheaded by Start a Library, an initiative of Storymoja. Start a Library will be the first campaign hosted on the Yetu Initiative e-philanthropy platform backed by USAID, the Aga Khan Foundation and other partners.
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