LIKONI LIBRARY IS FURNISHED

After two years as an empty room Likoni's Youth Empowerment Center Library is finally furnished!

The building was constructed with funding from Likoni's Constituency Development Fund (money allocated by the Kenyan Government and managed under the supervision of our local Member of Parliament) and complete in early 2009. Since then no government funding as been allocated to furnish the facility.

Hatua Likoni got tired of waiting, so in Sept 2010 we organized a committee of teachers and community members to plan fundraising activities for furniture. In early Feb. 2011 we hosted an Harambee (community fundraiser), and together with support from SDL Foundation, managed to raise 590,000 Kenya Shillings ($7,400).

With this amount and the expert work of our carpenter, Peter Ochola, we have build 5 wall shelving, 4 center pillar shelves, 9 reading tables, a librarians reception desk and computer tables for 9 desktops. We are remaining with money to buy computers which will then help earn income to pay the facilities expenses.

The day we placed chairs around the new tables students were already hard at work making use of them. However, we still don't have enough chairs. To donate a chair for $19 please visit http://www.hatualikoni.org/hatua/library/library_donate/.

Hatua did not accomplish this alone. We thank the members of Likoni Library's steering committee, particularly its chairman, Mr. Ngombo. We thank Post Bank and Cooperative Bank for their generous contributions, we thank the Likoni schools that contributed 2,000 Ksh each and all the students that help to raise funds through student proformers. We thank SDL Foundation for their major contributions to furniture and computers, we thank American Friends of Kenya and The East Side Community High School in NYC for book donations, and we thank Desi and Juma for their hard work as Library Development Interns.

Still our work is not finished. Tomorrow we will begin interviewing volunteer librarians to help us catalog our books. If you or someone you know is qualified and interested in this position please contact us at volunteer@HatuaLikoni.org.