Empower, Engage, Educate in Rural Kenya!

We celebrated the power of stories in a wonderful way on World Read Aloud Day (WRAD). 6338 learners at 39 schools participated in the festive event with a Read Aloud story, crown and badge making, and an excitement for reading. It's part of our work to build a culture of reading in our rural community.

In advance of the WRAD celebration, 35 teachers participated in a literacy workshop at the Library Learning Center. Led by Librarian Esther Muinde and Professional Learning Coordinator, Rebecca Akinywi Migwambo, the teachers discussed ways to engage their students with books beyond just learning from them "for the test." They also shared strategies on how to work with struggling readers and how to encourage parents to enroll their children in our library card program.

Literacy is at the heart of our work to lift students and the community out of education through the power of education. In addition to the annual World Read Aloud celebration, Kenya Connect works to strengthen education through the Mobile School Library Program, LitClubs and LitMoms, the Reading Challenge, Radio Read Alouds and the weekly free Saturday Storytime. With the only community Library for over 100km, our collection of 45,000 books delights children, young adults and adults. 

Support from donors like you have allowed us to grow our literacy work, especially to help us reach more future readers through the Mobile School Library which visits schools on an almost daily basis. Your donation also helps fuel our Saturday Storytime program. Most weeks children are lined up on Saturday mornings to participate in the Saturday Storytime since it's a fun and a safe place to explore ideas, knowledge and art.

Thank you for bringing the joy, wonder and knowledge of books to students, teachers and parents in our rural community. As we say during most literacy programs, "Shooting Stars" to you for your generosity and commitment to Kenya Connect.

Kenya Connect's School Break Bootcamps were Bold, Brilliant and Bright! With the Kenyan school year ending in early November, our Tech Team created bootcamps that were conducted in November and early Decemeber. Two of the boocamps were designed to introduce grades 5 and 6 students to digital devices, word processing, spreadsheets, coding and physical computing using Raspberry Pi Picos. In total we had 65 grade 5 students and 80 grade six students from seven of our partner schools including Mbaikini, Kambiti, Sofia, Makaalu, Kitulu, Kisinzini and Wamunyu ABC. The students were enthralled and did not want to leave at the end of each days camp! Our talented Tech Team: Patrick, Maureen, Brian, Felistus, and Monicah led the way and our partner Kevin, from Team4Tech.

Learning from others in the Kenya EdTech Space helps us expand our offerings. Our frineds from the STEM Impact Center Kenya offered a workshop for 30 students ages 10-15. The students were trained in creating games using scratch and how to add variables to store scores for the games. They learned how to use Makey Makey, a product to create circuits and play music. Through this technology, the students created a group project using the devices. Each student team used their public speaking skills to present to the other participants.

Throughout the break, we had a least 10 students each day come to the EdTech Hub to build robots using Lego kits. They researched ideas on the internet, tested their robots and shared what worked with other budding enginners. Patrick Munguti, Director of Technology shared, "The creativity of the students was stretched and I was very excited to see the students come up with some brilliant ideas. Support from donors like you ensures that we can continue these vibrant hands-on school break programs!"

Our last report highlighted young students learning math through using an abacus and then creating their own. Our educational programs run all year long and serve as an important enrichment for students in rural Kenya. Support from fabulous donors like you means we can reach even more students.

Thank you for being a Kenya Connect donor. As the year comes to a close, we thank you for being part of our community and we wish you and your family a very happy and healthy holiday season.