2023 Newsletters
December - A Christmas Gift Worth Shouting About
A Christmas Gift Worth Shouting About Laura Winkel is our President Elect. She will take over from Roy Austin at some point. Laura was with us in Kenya in June and got to visit schools and talk with students and teachers. What is the gift Laura would most like to have? MORE BOOKS IN MORE SCHOOLS
Well, the gift is on the way. On November 22, 2023, five 40 foot containers shipped with 223,000 books. It is due to arrive in Mombasa on January 9, 2024. It will take about 2 weeks to clear Customs and then another 4 weeks to process, sort and stamp the books before delivery to schools can start sometime in February. It will take several months to deliver that many books but over time about 750 more schools will get books impacting approximately 190,000 children. I have visited 21 rural schools and talked with lots of students and teachers. I look forward to visiting more next year. These children are smart, creative, and resourceful, with dreams about what they want to do when they grow up.
November - What Difference Can a Book Make?
Did you have a favorite book when you were a child that inspired you or helped you gain a new understanding of the world around you? It is hard, if not impossible to measure the impact of books. But, we all know that books make a difference in the lives of readers. The rural schools in Kenya and other African countries have no libraries or books for supplemental or recreational reading. They barely have textbooks with 20 to 30 students sharing 1 textbook. Imagine sharing your math, English, science, social studies, or Swahili textbook with 20-30 other students.
I have visited 21 rural schools and talked with students and teachers. I look forward to visiting more next year. These children are smart, creative, and resourceful, with dreams about what they want to do when they grow up. Click HERE to hear what the teachers in rural Kenya have to say about the importance of books.
October - Help Someone
BREAKING NEWS Five more containers are expected to ship in January, 2024.
When we were children we had dreams, right? Dreams of what we wanted to be and do in the future. The children in Kenya are the same. They have great dreams. You can help them achieve their dreams. You've heard it before haven't you - "We/I can't help everyone. There is truth in that statement. But here's the flip side. Just because we can't help everyone doesn't me we shouldn't/can't.
There are approximately 5 million students in 20,000 rural schools in Kenya. While we have put books in over 6,200 schools impacting 1.5 million children, there is a lot more dream building to do. Where do we go from here? We envision a worldwide ministry putting books in rural schools with limited resources to expand educational opportunities for children everywhere. If we can come this far in just 4 years, it is exciting to think about what we can do in the next 4 years and beyond.
September - Our BHAG
In Jim Collins famous book “Good to Great” he talks about having a BHAG. So, what is a BHAG and what is the Libraries For Kids, Int'l BHAG. A BHAG is a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL When we mailed our first books through the post office in August 2019 we were thinking small and envisioned shipping to a few schools. Erich Schmid and I were excited when we mailed books to the 9 th school. But, gradually, God expanded our thinking. We partnered with Books for Africa and through them, we started shipping containers. Now, here we are 4 years later and we’ve: Shipped 15 containers Shipped over 600,000 books Put books in 6,223 rural schools in Kenya Impacted the lives of approximately 1,550,000 children not to mention their teachers, families, and communities.
Where do we go from here? I envision a worldwide ministry putting books in rural schools with limited resources to expand educational opportunities. If we can come this far in just 4 years, it is exciting to think what we can do in the next 4 years and beyond.
Short-Term BHAG: 20,000 rural schools in Kenya impacting 5 million children
Long-Term BHAG: 50 million children.
Are these BHAGs possible? Absolutely!! If we can reach 1.5 million children in just 4 years, we can reach these BHAGs. It will take a lot of work. Our organization will change over time as we grow. We will learn new ways of carrying out our mission. Some of our roles will change and we will have to get out of our comfort zones and learn new things. But, I have no doubt we can reach these BHAGs. I invite you to jump on the Libraries for Kids, Int'l BHAG train. Scroll down and you will see opportunities to help with your time, talent, experience, as well as financially.
A book in the hands of a child can make a huge difference in their lives and their communities. If you’ve read “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” you will understand how big a difference. One of my favorite school visit discussions was with a 13-yearold boy named Branmuu, a student at Mgagha Primary School in Kenya. I asked him what his favorite subject was and he replied “Science.” I then asked him how the books we had sent his schools had helped him and he replied “Before the books came, I was failing science.” He went on to say “Those encyclopedias have opened up the world to me.”
August - We Need Your Help
We have a terrific opportunity to ship more books. We've applied for a grant to subsidize the cost of 5 more containers AND, a donor has given us the remaining $25,000. We've been told it is a virtual certainty that the grant request will be approved. But, there's always a but isn't there? (;>) The grant and the donation will cover the cost of shipping the containers to Kenya but once the containers arrive it will cost about $30,000 to deliver all those books to rural schools. A container holds about 40,000 books so 5 containers would be 200,000 books. So, we need your help.
We learned from our school visits in June that the children are hungry to learn and that the books we send are helping to improve literacy and establish a reading culture. At Sowene Primary School, when the school day ends, kids make a mad dash for the library because seating is limited, so first come first served.
SHARING TEXTBOOKS IN RURAL KENYA When you were in school did you have your own textbook? In rural Kenya, 20 to 30 students have to share one textbook. Imagine sharing your math, English, science, Swahili, or social studies book with 30 other students. How would your education have been affected if you had to share your textbook and had no library resources or recreational reading? Why do they have to share textbooks? Because government support of rural schools is only $5.50 per student per year to cover textbooks, supplies, building maintenance, and support staff. Parents pay fees but not nearly enough to cover everything so textbooks are kept for years and years and reused and shared. Look closely at the condition of these books.
July - "How about that?!"
Laura, Tamela, and I are back from Kenya and super motivated by our school visits. The welcome reception we received at the schools was amazing. Note - We went to Kenya at our own expense and no Libraries for Kids, Int'l money has been used for our journey. Our trip leader, Witress Emmanuel, had a favorite expression: "How about that?!" We all quickly adopted his catchy expression and had fun saying it every time we saw or experienced something amazing, which was pretty often, either on safari drives or during school and cultural visits. So, here is your chance to say it: We have now put books in 6,223 rural schools impacting the lives of approximately 1,555,750 children not to mention their teachers, families, and communities. So, "How about that?!" As exciting as that news is, there is another side. We very much want to ship more containers so we can get books in the rest of the remaining 14,000 rural schools. But, we don't have enough money to do that.
We need your help. One thing we learned for sure from our school visits: these children are hungry to learn. At Sowene Primary School the teacher told us that when the bell rings at the end of the school day, there is a mad rush of students heading for their library. Seating is limited so it is first come first served.
June - Greetings from Kenya
Greetings from Kenya. If you have been following our journey on Facebook you know what a blessing it has been to meet and talk with students and teachers. PS - We are in Kenya at our own expense and no Libraries for Kids, Int'l money has been used for our journey.
There are approximately 20,000 rural schools in Kenya. So far we have put books in 5,847 rural schools impacting 1,300,000 children. When you consider that the impact extends to the students, families, teachers, and communities the impact is probably about 3 million people.
SHORT TERM VISION 4.5 million students 20,000 rural schools have approximately 4.5 million students. Our goal over the next couple of years is to put books in all of them.
May - VISION: 4.5 million students
Greetings! Three of us, Laura Winkel, Tamela Maxim, and Roy Austin will be in Kenya in June. We are all paying our own expenses so zero cost to Libraries for Kids, Int'l. We well visit a number of schools and also national parks. Watch for our posts on Facebook. Container #15 has arrived and is in the process of being delivered to schools We would like to schedule another container but at the moment we don't have the funds so hopefully you can help. From the warehouse in Marietta, GA to the schools costs about $25,000. There is more about the logistics and cost breakdown below.
April - 5,556 Rural Schools
Greetings! I told you in the March newsletter that we had some big news. Well, it is even bigger that I thought. We have now put books in 5,556 rural schools That impacts 1 million 250,000 children. But, we are just getting started. We have delivered books only 7 counties of the 18 counties. We had been using the number of rural schools as 6,750. However, that is just the primary schools in 2012 and the number has gone up substantially since then. Plus there are the secondary schools. Wanjiku estimates that there are probably 20,000 primary and secondary schools in Kenya. That would impact 4.5 million students. Our vision just got bigger!! VISION: 4.5 million students
March - Major Milestone
We have now put books in 4,427 rural schools. We have now shipped over 600,000 books.
BOOK CLUBS: Wanjiku and her team are creating book clubs in many of the schools to encourage a reading culture.
On April 22, 2023 Libraries For Kids, Int'l will have our annual celebrity fundraising dinner & dance. Music will be provided by the CHIGGERS, the 2020 recipient of the Readers' Choice best local band award The Chiggers.
February - Half Way There
MORE BOOKS DELIVERED
310 more schools
Our team in Kenya led by Wanjiku Francis has delivered books to 310 more schools. That brings the total to 3,331 schools impacting the lives of about 750,000 students not to mention the teachers, families and villages.January - 2023 - More books, More Schools, More Libraries
2023 is shaping up to be a fantastic year.
The 2 containers with 70,000+ books that arrived a couple of weeks ago will be distributed to schools when they return from summer break on January 23, 2023 Container # 13 with almost 45,000 books arrived in Mombasa and is in the process of clearing Customs Containers 14 & 15 shipped from Marietta, GA on January 18, 2023, with almost 75,000 books Container # 16 has been ordered and will ship from London, England in late April. The last time we got a container from London it held 50,000 books. Our goal for 2023 is to create libraries in 1,500 schools impacting about 338,000 children and their teachers, parents, and families as well.