The Beyond Sciences Initiative – Nairobi Chapter, had an amazing time establishing a library at Kabete Rehab on the 8th June 2018. This was done in partnership with Story Moja Africa-Start A Library (SAL) team.

Below is an elaborate report on the same.

Kabete Rehab hosts a population of 78 students; with students from class 5 to 8, the breakdown of the students per class is as follows Class (8 – 19 STDs, 7 – 23 STDs, 6 – 24 STDs and 5 – 12 STDs) these are special children who are on the verge of change from their past life. Our team spoke with the Deputy H.T of the school Mr. Gitonga and he shared with us a brief history of some of the students’ past lives, some of which were quite sad. We are happy with the effort the school teachers are making towards rehabilitating these students to become better citizens of our nation by encouraging them to focus on their education and facilitating access to a new library with a wide collection of storybooks.

The school was privileged to have a new library courtesy of the Beyond sciences initiative. The Start A Library (SAL) team, together with the Kabete Rehab students, was able to arrange the new library in accordance with the various class levels.

During the launch program on the 8th of June 2018, The Beyond sciences initiative team had the privilege of interacting with the Kabete rehab students and we shared with them lessons on the value of reading for pleasure. The students were also encouraged to freely attend the library lessons and utilize the books by engaging in different library promotion activities in the library. Students were trained on how to monitor their reading habits by use of book-marks, various reading promotion activities and book conservation methods. All these ensures that the books are utilized while at the same time preserved to the next class generations.

The library was finally launched by the BSI members who cut down the ribbon and officially invited the students for a short reading activity in the library. This was then followed by a series of photo shoot sessions in the library space with both teams holding up the new library books with broad smiles.

As everyone left, the BSI students were able to have a final interaction with the Kabete rehab students and a quick farewell photo shoot. The students asked for future visitations from BSI and SAL and this was deeply considered. SAL team will handle quarterly Monitoring &Evaluation at the school so as to find out the impact of the library on the Kabete rehab students.

BSI Nairobi Chapter is currently in the process of identifying other needy schools and children who do not have reading material. We believe that reading has the ability to transform lives.

We would like to thank Dr. Eleanor Fish, Payam Zarin, and the entire BSI team for their immense support. This dream would not have been possible without their constant support, both materially and immaterially.

More updates and more libraries coming soon.