Serve a Village and the local residents of Maragoli, Kenya have created a children's library! This community library, the Serve a Village Resource Centre (formerly known as the Kigima Resource Center), serves children and young people in the Gisambai District of Vihiga, Kenya. It's mission is to create a functionally literate and informed society through reading and listening, thereby developing self-reliance and creating harmony among the community.
We welcome applications for volunteers who would like to go to Kenya and help. If you would like to help with the Serve a Village Resource Centre, please contact us to get involved.
This neighborhood has 9+ elementary schools, 3+ high schools and one technical school all within a 30 minute walk of the library. The Serve a Village Resource Centre serves several hundred children and youth. There are (as far as we know) no other free public libraries in the county. Most schools have no books besides those that are assigned to pupils for their class subjects and even those textbooks are often out of reach.
In April 2012 Serve a Village volunteers Jacob and Julia Mudrick flew to Kenya to embark on a three month service expedition. Together they laid the foundation for the Serve a Village Resource Center. They organized a library oversight committee comprised of local community leaders. They found, rented, and repaired the library site and installed the necessary shelving. They worked hard to provide training for the librarians. You can read about their adventures on their blog. Our goal was to create a model for a library that could eventually be replicated across Western Kenya.
The Serve a Village Resource Center is on the border of two heavily populated districts, but is located in a quiet village area, not far from a main road. This library provides not only valuable educational resources but a peaceful place for children and young adults to study and grow. The library currently serves between 40-50 children each day. In addition, teachers from the local schools use the library as a resource for the classroom instruction.
