Build a library for 500,000 Kenyans (Tranche 1)

Dear Friends of Maria’s Libraries,

Greetings from Busia! I’m the newest member of the ML team, Sofia Mussa.  I’m based in Busia, to help support the community in getting some of these projects off the ground.  I’m very excited to be joining the Maria’s Libraries team for the next few months.

We really appreciate your continued support! We are continuing to fundraise, locally and in the US, for the construction of a modern, state of the art library in Busia. At the moment we are moving forward with plans to build one of the smaller buildings on the library site, a two room Citizen Science Center. The concept behind the Citizen Science Center is creating a public, innovative space where residents of the community can access scientific equipment and use it according to their own interests. This may include schools coming in for science projects or individuals pursuing their love of astronomy. The Citizen Science Center will be the first step on the road to path to the main library!

We are looking forward to starting construction. And we will be sure to keep you updated!

Asanti,

Sofia

Dear Friends of the Busia County Library,

Thank you all for the amazing support over the past few weeks!  In our most recent campaign on June 13, we raised over 2,000 dollars towards the building of the Busia County Library, and another 1,000 dollars for programming.  We were overwhelmed with the support, and our partners in Busia have asked us to convey their sincerest asante sanas as well  I'm also pleased to announce the winner of the art raffle was Claire Fontaine.  We'd love your feedback on the art raffle-- if this is something you'd like to see more of in the future, please let us know!

Our next steps here in New York are to continue our fundraising push.  In early October, we'll be holding our Breaking Ground Gala event, so watch this space for more information on that.   In early July, our New York group of volunteer architects will be convening to go over the existing library plans in conjunction with our colleagues in Busia.  We're so close to getting these drawing finalized, we can taste it!

In the meantime, we're still offering state of the art programs in the library's existing space.  Many thanks to EIFL for funding a children's reference library on tablet computers.  We'll be holding a tented event to showcase the new materials on the library's plot of land in mid-July, bringing together teachers, students, and librarians from all over Western Kenya to learn and play with the new resources at the library.

As ever, our communication lines are wide open.  Get in touch with ideas, questions, comments. 

Many warm wishes,

Eva and Ariel

eva@mariaslibraries.org, ariel@mariaslibraries.org

Links:

• Maria's Libraries

Dear Friends of Maria’s Libraries,

It is time to check in with you about our building project! First, we wanted to thank you for your support. This project is moving forward because of you. Next, some details on fundraising and on the project itself:

As you may know, raising funds to initiate construction on a fully-equipped, modern library in Busia is our primary fundraising goal in 2012, and we are on track to accomplish this goal. While we are doing this in part on Global Giving, where you donated, we are also fundraising through our website and through a series of events in the US. Events thus far this year have raised over $2000, and we will hold a major event in New York City in the spring to do the bulk of our offline fundraising for this project.  Watch this space or like us on Facebook for details; we hope that you join us, and that you spread the word to your friends, family and colleagues. 

Further, Eva is currently Kenya working on both fundraising and construction. Our colleagues in Busia are full participants in fundraising for their own library, and while Eva was there last week she hammered out with them the details of a plan to raise their contribution to the project. This week, Eva has moved on to Mombasa, to visit Architronic's Joe Mugo, who has already developed a conceptual design (see the drawings in our project document), and who is ready to begin working on the detailed drawings. These will be designed based on specifications that came out of meetings among local stakeholders in Busia; end user research conducted by Maria’s Libraries; the needs of the management of the future library—Kenya National Library Services; on green building principles and using wherever possible local materials and local labor. 

Eva has been posting her thoughts regularly on the Maria's Libraries blog. Check it out! 

You might also be interested to learn that since the land in Busia has been fenced by Kenya National Library Services this winter, the local committee (FASSCO) has been holding its meetings there. This has been a nice development for two reasons—first, FASSCO now has a designated, quiet space where they can hold their planning meetings, and second, the activity there has been raising more awareness and enhancing community interest in the project. We imagine that these effects will be felt even more strongly in the coming months, as they intend to move their periodic “reading tent” events, typically held on the site of the existing library, to the location of the new library.

Finally, visit our project page on Global Giving to view a new video made in collaboration with Maria's Libraries staff, Busia community members, and great friend of Maria's Libraries, Ayelet Leibovitch. 

We are thrilled at these developments as we raise the funds for the new building.

Best, Ariel and Eva