The Harambee Project

The Peace Corps never told us volunteers how much our sanity would depend on reading, so it’s a good thing that many of us love reading, and intend to share our love of reading with our students.  Oftentimes I will sit on a bench near the courtyard and read a book.  Some of the students will come up to me to see what I am reading.   They love to flip through whatever book I am reading even though they can’t understand it.  Their faces light up when they come across a word that they recognize.  The students at my school have shown a remarkable desire to learn and almost everyday I see potential in each one of them.  Unfortunately due to a myriad of factors outside their control, they have few things to do at school with their time outside of class.  Their learning is hindered by the fact that we have minimal resources at the school, and this makes it very difficult to teach any subject, especially English.

With this in mind, I’ve set out on a goal to build a library at my school.

A common misconception is that Deaf students learn and understand English the same way that hearing students do.  English is a foreign language to them as their primary method of communication is through Kenyan Sign Language.  The only way they can understand English is through practice of the written word.  Deaf students must learn English the same way anyone learns a foreign language, through practice and repetition.  With this in mind, I’ve set out on a goal to build a library at my school. Reading would not only help them to further understand the English language but it will aid them in the other subjects and they can learn just by reading on their own.

I’ve teamed up with five other former and current Peace Corps Volunteers on this library project.  Together, we are working with Books for Africa, a nonprofit organization that donates books to children in Africa for a project called The Harambee Project.  Harambee is a Swahili word meaning “pull together to fund raise for a community need.“  This is a way of life in Kenya as many people with money assist those that need it.  The great news is that Books for Africa is giving us a huge sea container filled with over 20,000 books!

Together, we will bring the gift of reading to several hundred children in Africa.

These books are free and are just sitting in a warehouse ready to go, but we need to raise the funds to ship this HUGE container of books to Kenya.  This is where you come in.  I ask that you make a contribution to the Harambee Project.  Together, we will bring the gift of reading to several hundred children in Africa.  I humbly ask for your support in this exciting and life-changing endeavor.  I, along with the other Peace Corps Volunteers, am determined to teach these kids how to read and to improve their English abilities and make a difference in their lives.  Your help would be essential in the first step of achieving this goal, providing resources and the gift of reading to the hungry minds of several hundred students of Kenya.