New Year, New Times

Well, here we are in another new year! Here we are still making libraries! Hope for another 4 this year..

DONATION RECEIVED form Paterson Family Foundation!! for $10,000USD!!! Waitng for cheque to clear! This will enable Anne to stay here longer and make more libraries, paying for fuel, phone, car maintenence, office etc, as well as help with some KLT projects! THANK YOU!!!

Maili Saba will open next month as long as furniture and carpeting arrive by then! Staff have been GREAT during training! A MYSA library

Githurai I REALLY hope will open this year. Work remaining to do on the floor and roof of the building before carpeting and furniture can go in, and then the books- which have been sitting at Eastleigh for 2 years or more! A MYSA library

Gilgil. Again hope this year will finally see some action here! If we can start in a temporary building, getting staff trained and books processed, and with luck by then the new building with Sonata Trust will be ready!

Kasarani. This is with ICEI. They are still trying to find a donor to support their centre and their sustainability plan. Fingers crossed! They are SO enthusiastic and determined!

Ngong Town. This is a possible new centre. Teh building and land are being donated by the owner for a children's centre! We may b able to start gardening clubs, teaching children how to grow produce in a library shamba. Their planned sustainability project is chicken raising next door to the library.

Kawangware. Is a bit desperate. We are trying to save this library from closing - SO desperately needed by this community, but the CBO has been unable to find sustainability, and rent is due for 5 months so far. Should know more next week..!

Sipili, Laikipia West is developing and growing all the time! We are trying to find funding for a girl child project here in the library. We want to set up a ' safe space' for girls to come to talk.. about anything from being married at 12 years old, to hair styles, to raising goats, to school, to female circumcision, to nail varnish... We want the to be able to talk freely to a coordinator and each other, then create drams, poems or music to express thier issues to show to others. We also want to bring inspirational speakers from Nairobi every month .. a lady lawyer, a lady chief, lady doctor etc who can show these girls that they are able to do more than just become a mama age 14 like their mama's did before them.

Mathare North has a great girls rap group, and a hip hop group! Trying to get this recorded and onto the blog! Watch this space!
Eastleigh now has thier adults fiction arranged in genres, as Sipili is. Mathare North will follow in the next week or so. The problem is that their typewriters are in use at Maile Saba until they open!!

KLT CAMCORDER. This is now available thanks to Bakewell Rotary Club! We are just waiting for the wire to transfer to computer to arrive! THANK YOU BAKEWELL ROTARY CLUB, UK.!!!

Braeburn schools. Anne is now doing one day a week advising Braeburn on their school libraries. Money from this is going to KLT account.

Book Clubs. The are now at ISK- Mathare North library (next book is 'Hoot'), and Braeburn primary school - Kawangware. Still trying to pair Eastleigh with Rosslyn Academy! All books chosen are chosen loosly on a theme of reconciliation and tolerance.

MINISTRY OF YOUTH, KENYA. We have just had a meeting with the ministry of Youth today, and there may be possibilitie for partnership , to help the youth of Kenya.

Talk again next month!!!

Anne

Merry Christmas! and heres to more centres in the New Year!!!

Well, finally have a car again!!! A matatu (small bus) hit me over two weeks ago, and after much palava getting poice abstracts, and insurance assessors to the right garage, I FINALLY have my car back!! YEAY!!! I actually had to hire a car to take a lady from Safaricom Foundation to see to of the centres last week.. the only car I could get was a Toyota corolla.. this was fun trying to navigate the holes and trenches of Mathare North! As we were asking Safaricom to donate a 4 wheel drive vehicle, it was - I suppose!- quite appropriate as she saw the need!! I have been riding matatus to meetings in the meanwhile!

KLT STUFF. We are still trying to get duty exemption status! Neil- our accountant- is working on this for us.

KLT UK. Stil hoping to become a charity in the UK. I have a meeting with a lady this week who may know someone in the UK who is willing to take this on.Fingers crossed!!!

KLT CENTRES . Most of the centres are closing from Christmas eve until January 4th. Sipili is opening some days in between!

KLT LEAFLET. Still hoping to get a meeting with Colourspace to see if they may help with this. Is really important now to have a leaflet we can give out to prospective donors.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all donors, staff and friends of KidsLibs Trust!!!!!

Hi!
Well a lot happening here for those interested!
We moved Kawangware centre to its new premesis 2 weeks ago now! This is the new children's library- story section! Nice n bright and cheerful!! We had helpers from the proposed Kasarani centre, and from the proposed Gilgil centre!

Adults fiction section

Kawangware is still trying to find means to become sustainable.. any offers?? They want to either start a radio station, or a cyber cafe... with cyber cafe will need at least 10 - 15 computers donating, complete with UPS, software etc...






KidsLibs Trust office now is complete!!! We now have in addition to the printer and laminator a DESK TOP COMPUTER - donated by the Pandit family-! We also now have funds to purchase a guillotine. Just need a filing cabinet..

Bakewell Rotary Club is sending us £500 to purchase a camcorder (plus tapes, plus memory sticks etc)! This is greatly needed to record library activities and events! I hope this will arrive with us before Chirstmas so we can get the camcorder soon and start recording!!!

Neil Jones is now our accountant, and is working for us for free!!!Also his son- Mike who works for Colourspace advertising agency- has made us 600 business cards for free!!! MANY thanks!!

Maili Saba is coming along nicely! The staff are so keen to get open by January!











Ken, Douglas, and Simon



Fundraiser 2008!!
On December 5th KidsLibs Trust held our first ever ice cream and books fundraiser! It was all organised by Susan Phillips- our newest Trustee and held at her house! Kids form Mathare North girls rap group performed, as did the drams group, who performed a drama written about how the post election violence was viewed by the children living in the slums of Nairobi. Very moving. Unfortunately not many people came, but we hope the ones who did will be the ones who may help us!!

Sipili November 2008.. the school for the deaf drama group performed for us! Here is the video of their performance! Anne goes back to Sipili on December 16th with a representative from the Girlchild Network. They will talk to a group of girls in Sipili about girl issues. We hope that this group of girls will become a permanent group, so we can send guest speakers to talk to them, and inspire them to become all they can be.





Wanna Be a Trustee??
We need another new Trustee! Smita is no longer able to be our chair, so we need someone willing to take on the role!

OK thats it for now!!! Talk soon!!!

HI All!

Well, November has arrived!!!

KidsLibs now has an accountant! neil Jones in Nairobi is now doing our accounting for us.. which is a great relief!!!

Paterson Foundation also are supporting us! They are sending a one off donation of $10,000USD!!! thank you ! thank you!

Susan Philips is working on a fund raiser for KLT on December 5th.. Looks like an opportunity to enjoy books- and your favourite ice cream!!! hope people will donate their money as well as their time to support us!

Maile Saba is progressing nicely!! the guys are now pretty much perfect cataloguing Junior fiction books! they have completed the Junior fiction (yellow labels), blue labels (younger fiction), green lables (story collections) and are making their way through the picture books (pink lables)!

Anne visited Mathare North library on Saturday, where the drama group and the hip hop group and the girls RAP group all performed!!!! WOW!!!! They were awsome!!! I managed to video them , so when the website is eventually available you will be able to watch their performance on the site!

Anne and Patrick visited Eastleigh centre today, where THEIR drama group performed!!! There is so much talent out there! the group is also the bookreading club, who help in the library, keeping the books in order etc.

We have alSo visited the new possible site for the Kasarani centre. However, we are working on approaching the Ministry of Education to donate FREE OF RENT a building through CDF finding... watch this space!!!

Kawangware centre we are still trying to find sustainability before moving in to the new building. I am hoping this will be resolved by the end of today! We are still waiting to hear from Safaricom Foundation as to whether they will pay for further shelving as we expand, and pay for 6 months sustainability whilst WFF (the CBO who run the library) finds their own source of income. Dr Gitu (chairman of the CDF committee for the building) is being very supportive!

Sipili centre (Laikipia West area) are still wonderful! We took one of the KLT Trustees there last week, with some other interested parties! The children from the school for the deaf performed again .. this time I got them on video!! We need 6 sheets of mubati (corrogated iron sheeting) to repair the roof, and further work to create a veranda roof to protect shoes during the rains. We are also now quite hopeful that a new libary committee will be in existance before the end of the year! YEAY!!!

We are in talks with the Ministry of Education re adults education, and starting classes in all of our centres. Will keep you up to date on this! They have also suggested contacting the Ministry for Youth for funding for youth issues, also the Book Development council... I have meetings next week with both!!

Still pursuing the Girlchild Network to come to our next meeting to discuss Girlchild issues.. really needed for Sipili particularly

Talk soon!!! Sitting in Java coffee house (free internet!)! ned to go home!!!


Anne

October developments!

Kawangware , Nairobi update! We went to see the proposed new library room on Tuesday. This is it!! It is upstairs, and is huge!! We WFF has put a proposal in to the CDF committee for this room for the library, plus a further two rooms to run two sustainability projects: 1 is a radion station, and the other a cyber cafe. We are waiting for their reply.

Maile Saba, Nairobi is continuing to develop! Staff training is continuing, and we are all still learning!!! Will take some photos next week!

Sipili, Laikipia West. Anne is going to visit again next week. The rains have started and we have been told the roof is leaking, so we need to go to assess the situation! Also resolve electricity divider (from school). George Nderitu from MYSA will also be coming! He hopes to see the school for the deaf perform, as well as talk to Joseph and John about drama, music, and peer education of HIV Aids, children's rights etc.

Eastleigh MYSA centre, Nairobi. Anne is visiting next week, and will take photos of the new look centre! We are also trying to divide the adults fiction by genre as in Sipili centre.

Mathare North MYSA centre, Nairobi is continuing with their many activities, including a debate group (debating the pros and cons for rural life versus urban life) and a hip hop group! We have also found one child who has sight difficulties, so we are providing books in large print.

KidsLibs Trust has purchased a laminator and printer for their office.This will enable all centres to print their monthly reports, KLT to print out agendas, minutes, etc. The laminator will mainly be used to create library guiding for all centres. Currently we have to pay large amounts to get this done commercially.

A desk top computer is arriving in the next week or two, so the office will be fully functional- at last! MANY thanks to Sara Lee for their continued support!

Anne is visiting a possible new CBO partner tomorrow. They are located in Kasarani area of Nairobi (Mathare Valley).

Talk next week!!!!

Anne

GETTIN SOMEWHERE!!

Well, have been back a while now, and things moving along!!! Still waiting for the website to be up and active!! Should be soon now!!

Meanwhile...
Eastleigh has received their donation from Eastleigh UK, when Joshe and I went to choose Africa Collection materials (books written by African writers, or about Africa, or in African languages) a few weeks ago!! THANK YOU EASTLEIGH UK!!! Eastleigh Nairobi has also re organised all of thier rooms!!! It is SO much better.. much more space! ALSO MYSA opened their cyber cafe in their Eastleigh offices TODAY!!!! Not part of KidsLIbs library, but still a great initiative for the community!!

Kawangware: Well, we are trying to move building! The centre theere has proved SOOOO popular that we really need to move to bigger premises. Also the landlord has increased the rent.... We think we have found a room which may be donated using CDF funds (comunity development fund, controlled by local MP). Here's hoping!!! WFF and KLT are putting a proposal together, and hpe to be successful! We then will try to find a donor to purchase more shelving, carpeting etc.

UKENYA, Kayole. Still not signing on to KidsLIbs. Sad as they are losing out on so many benefits! theyt may yet change their minds!!!

Mathare North is ticking over well!! Still processing a lot of new stock!!!

Sipili, Laikipia West. I went ot visit them 2 weeks ago, and th ecentre still looks great!!! Joseph is blossoming!!! the school for the deaf (which ia next door to our centre) performed a drama for us... which has led to us needing to purchase a digital video camera to record such events to put onto our new website!!! The chairs for this centre are now safely in place, Still need to organise the library committee into a working group for the benefit of the community. John is also still coordinating the drama group! So much potential here!! Will return in October to talk to new head of Lariak Primary school, and to Joseph about class visits.

Maile Saba. Training is progressing here. I think we MAY be able to open in December all going well!!! New shelving is being constructed, as shelving that was made was of extremely poor quality.

Githurai, Well 3 years on Githurai is STILL not ready for stock!! The floor is still not completed, or the ceiling- it leaks-. Watch this space!!! MYSA has the stock for Githurai housed at Eastleigh currently.

KidsLibs Trust. Well, Sara Lee have given us an office! They are also suppplying all the furniture for us! Hpe this will be ready this week. Smita Pandit (chair of KLT Trust) has donated a desktop computer for th eoffice. Anne is trying to find a good printer and laminator this week to complete the office. If we find a good printer we may be able to print out new business cards- which are too expensive to get made (last ones were donated!) and even a leaflet about KLT!!!

Anne now has a salary set up, and is trying to organise accountants, audits etc both for the Trust and for her!!!

WISHLIST:

Digital Camcorder.
bikes for each centre to collect newspapers
Vehicle for KLT which is strong and durable
funding for new centres
funding to create Africa collections in all centres
funding to employ P.A for Anne (he is currently unpaid)
CURRENT information books!
method of transporting book donations form across the planet to our centres
a tractor for sustainability of Sipili centre in Laikipia West(adults AND kids!)

Talk soon!!!!

Anne

I'm Back!!!

Am back in Kenya!!!! HAVE A WONDERFUL DONOR who wish to remain anonymous, but who want us to have a better world... doesnt get much better than that!!!!

Have been back for a week, and now have a place to live!!

Have been to one libraries meeting already, had a meeting in Gilgil re new centre there (actually saw possible site to build the new centre!!). Have visited Eastleigh (todday) and was very impressed with Joshe's new arrangement... he has expanded into 4 rooms now... 2 for adults, and two for kids!

Have visited Maile Saba, and have started training with the guys there!

Alos started sorting stock currently housed at Sara Lees.

Visiting Githurai on Monday, and Kawangware on Wednesday!

SO GOOD TO BE BACK!!!!