Support the Likoni Library Project

Support the Likoni Library Project and help build mobile libraries for students in Kenya in collaboration with Yale Afro American Cultural Center. Since March, The Likoni Library Project has been leading a book drive at Yale to help create libraries for secondary schools in underserved areas in Kenya. We are now calling all student volunteers to help with cataloging and packaging books on April 27th at the Afro-American Cultural Center. 

Spearheaded by a group of Fulbright English Teaching Assistants, The Likoni Library Project supports economically-disadvantaged youth in Mombasa in building foundational literacy skills and developing a love for reading by creating libraries and reading enrichment programs. Leveraging partnerships with schools in the United States The Likoni Library Project organizes book drives to collect high-quality storybooks, novels, and other reading materials for high-need secondary schools in Mombasa county; Book donations are also used to support and implement reading and writing programming, including books clubs, creative writing workshops, and other educational activities to further improve students’ English language skills. Currently, The Likoni Library Project is working with two secondary schools in Mombasa county, Mrima Mixed Secondary School and Shika-Adabu Secondary School, and is expanding its reach.

To date, The Likoni Library Project has organized book drives at Yale University as well as several other schools sites in the New York City area. Through these efforts, we expect to collect 1,000 books for our students. Additionally, we have independently raised over $5000 dollars for delivery expenses an to fulfill specific book requests made by teachers and administrators. English enrichment programming by the Likoni Library Project has also already begun and is showing great initial success. In creative writing sessions, students have started to craft their own compositions and delve into the writing process. Their creative works are also being published digitally and physically through literary magazines also edited and produced by students. And in book clubs run each week, students have engaged in discussion around popular storybooks, poems, and short stories, (including Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Mohsin Hamad’s “Exit West) honing their close reading and analytical skills.