Kids show off their favorite books at The Hope Library, Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya

[NAIROBI, Kenya] With a little bit of trepidation I made my fifth visit or so to this city’s Kibera slum – a “city within a city” of an estimated 600,000 to 1 million residents living in very challenging conditions – to check up on the state of The Hope Library. The project was started as an audacious dream after my first visit here, a casual daylong tour by a resident (Reuters photographer Noor Khamis) who introduced me to many facets of life here, including some folks who made it know how great was their desire for books, and how dire was their need. (Read original blog post of that encounter here.)

Sure, I’d returned six months ago and seen a church classroom full of kids enjoying our first shipment of books (about 1,200 at that time), but they were mostly picture books and it was a bit of a photo op. The books were kept in a small corner of a temporary space in the St. George Orthodox Church, but the gratitude of the adults and the enthusiasm of the kids pushed me on, to months of cajoling books out of my friends, as well as donations for shipping and other needs.

So began Phase II. In all, I estimate my social network (mainly via Facebook) accounted for about 2,000 more books (carefully selected to feature categories of most value to this community), as well as donations of about $2,750, to help defray shipping and other costs. (Almost all the books were donated, but it’s extremely expensive to ship them. I lucked out by connecting with American Friends of Kenya, and for a much reduced cost, piggybacked many boxes on a shipping container they successfully sent from the States to Kenya last month.)

I couldn’t thank my Facebook crowd enough when I visited today and saw that the enthusiasm for, and commitment toward, The Hope Library had multiplied by 100 in the past six months. I interviewed both kids and adults about the impact of reading specific books on their lives (video to come later), and enjoyed seeing the adults read to the kids in a program meant to foster not only literacy but stronger parent-child ties as well.

Other highlights of the day:

• the distribution of super cool soccer jerseys, with customized design donated by Antonio Garcia of GoodNightTV.com in Chicago.
• a special hot lunch (with meat!) cooked behind the church by women and men of the community, for about 100 kids. Facebook friends also made this possible. I was told that often, the kids are lucky to get one such hot meal a week.
• brainstorming and strategic planning with the adult steering committee for entering Phase III: the acquisition of permanent land and structure to house the library collection, as well as programs of the affiliated Nicofeli Youth and Kids Clubs.

While enthusiasm about their new library (the first in Kibera!) is running high, the needs here remain great.

The coaches of the boys soccer team expressed great gratitude for the new jerseys, and now of course are keen on getting other luxuries, like … proper shoes (about $12 a pair). A medical kit (maybe $10-15) for their inevitable injuries. Modest funds for transportation to and from matches with other teams in the region (about $12 each way).

The library, as stated, needs a permanent facility, with proper shelves to encourage browsing, and preferably chairs and nice lighting to allow relaxed reading (this isn’t really possible in most residences here, simple huts or shacks that often house 6 family members in a 12×12 ft. area). Eventually, computers with web support will connect them to the outside world, but that takes money as well. A bit of a connection has been made with a local trust, but a firm commitment has not yet been made.

Osir Caleb, Evans Otira,  and other leaders of the kids club and library are diligent in their record-keeping, showing me a growing stack of formal applications submitted to the Kenyan government, NGOs (non-government organizations), and other aid agencies, almost all marked REJECTED, in hopes of getting on more stable footing. But they have made some very modest gains, have garnered some very cool publicity (see this article from Nairobi’s Standard newspaper), and they will get there. As I counseled them: Persistence paid off. I shared my own story of doggedly pursuing internships and college aid many years ago; for every 100 letters of application I submitted, probably 99 were sent back with a “sorry, but good luck” sort of letter. But when the 1 of 100 comes in, BINGO, you are in business!

If you have an interest in contributing to any of the above needs for the library, kids club or soccer program (perhaps have your child’s school soccer team sponsor Nicofeli’s?) please email me at ron@artwithinreason.com and I will fill you in on how you can help. (At the moment all book acquisitions are on HOLD – they have plenty of great stuff to choose from, with the collection at 3,200 titles or more, and need to get on solid footing with their space needs before taking on additional titles. Stay tuned to hear if we are accepting donations in the future.)

To see other photos from this visit, see this photo album at Facebook. To learn more about the origins of Hope Library, and earlier fundraising efforts, go here.

Thanks again to all my Facebook friends (and some Facebook strangers!), as well as many others, who helped bring this crazy scheme this far! Stay tuned to this blog for updates in the future.