In this fast-paced digital age, where the internet marks a great percentage of our interactions, children are often left to watch television and hardly get time to interact outside school. In such a time, there is something remarkably enriching about a visit to a community library, more specifically in this case, the Hatua Nyali Community Library. Beyond its extensive book collection, the library is a treasure that serves as a hub of community engagement. During the recent April school holiday, it played host to a number of events and activities for primary school children. Most of the sessions were facilitated by our library fellows with the aim of getting children engaged in meaningful activities during the holidays.
Once children arrived at the library at 9 am, they were split into two groups: those above 5 years old and those below 5 years. As the first group took part in Read Aloud storytelling sessions, the other group was occupied with spelling bee activities. An art session then followed which involved drawing, colouring, shape cutting, and painting, before the kids went for lunch at noon.
In the afternoon at about two o’clock, the kids streamed back energized, recharged, and ready for a session with the Yoto Player, a screen-free audio player for children, through which they listened to a story. Afterward, they had an activity session that was based on the lessons they learned from the story which included singing songs, recreating characters in the story and reenacting the story, and painting.
Not all activities were enclosed within the library’s four walls, the kids also took part in outdoor games led by our Librray Fellows. Every Friday, the library screened a movie that the kids eagerly looked forward to.
Macrina Ngina, Hatua’s Mvita Library Officer, helped organize the event and had this to say about the two-week experience: “Kids were enjoyable to work with and very friendly. It was exciting to see kids from the neighbourhood benefit from the program. It was also amazing to see the great improvement in confidence and speech as a result of the Value-Based Read-Aloud program.”
The two weeks were a roaring success for the library team. A total of 592 children participated during the first week, and another 621 children took part in the second week of activities. At the moment, the team is looking forward to the next holiday and making plans for the next sessions. “We are expecting even more kids from the neighbourhood to join in the library activities,” Macrina says.
Hatua’s library programs are part of our efforts to serve those in the local community who we are unable to reach with our scholarship and mentoring program. Currently have two community libraries and 11 satellite libraries within public schools in Mombasa County. Click here to learn more about how you can support our library programs.
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