One of the greatest pleasures in life is cuddling with your blanket on a cozy sofa and losing yourself in a good
book. This may seem like a simple enough activity but for many students in the quaint Vihiga County in the Western part of Kenya, this is a huge feat. Many families cannot provide 3 meals for their family so any money that can be wrung up for buying books is strictly spent on essential academic books. This is the sam
e situation in public schools where there is hardly any budget for fiction books making them few and far between in school libraries.
On the 10th of January 2024, Phakama 254 Foundation donated books (storybooks and novels) to Iduku Primary School in Vihiga County. This was in a bid to not only improve the students’ language skills but also allow them the delight of reading stories from all over the world.
Let me take you back a month before, in December of 2023 when the foundation was in the Christmas spirit which we wanted to spread out to the community. We decided to direct the generosity people have in December to a book drive. We reached out to friends of the foundation from Kenya and South Africa and we were able to collect 128 books in total for donation.
The book donation at Iduku Primary School was a resounding success. From the moment we arrived at the school to when we waved goodbye, the entire school was astir with excitement. We had a small handover ceremony, took pictures, and spen
t time with the students. The few hours we spent at the school reinforced our raison d’etre, and their little smiles made all our work towards the book drive worth it.
During the book donation event, we realized that the school lacked a proper library. Moreover, we wanted the community to have access to the books as well. This dual problem led us to start a library program which we are currently collecting funds for. Nevertheless, we have taken a huge first step into realizing this goal with the book drive and are confident the future is full of even more smiling students.
