Gender Equality Kenya Project #6866

Teach 75 mothers to read stories to kids in Kenya

by Maria's Libraries

Project Report | May 16, 2014
Mother & Child Reading Program Launches in Kisumu!

By Lauren Messner & Sue Stein | Maria's Libraries

Local librarians attend training in Kisumu

I walked by my local bookstore yesterday and noticed a huge display of colorful children’s books in the window. It’s “Children’s Book Week” here in the US, and the store is highlighting a selection of newly released children’s literature to mark the occasion. This got me thinking about the enormity of the children’s book industry in America. Our children have thousands of age-appropriate books in countless genres to choose from, and even if books aren’t available to them at home, they can access books for free at both school libraries and public libraries. My own home is brimming with children’s books. My 3 year old soothes himself to sleep at night by flipping through books and telling himself the stories.

I took these resources for granted until I discovered, through my work with Maria’s Libraries, all of the educational set-backs children face when they aren’t exposed to reading and books from an early age. Learning to read is far more difficult if you don’t have access to books until you’re old enough to attend school. Even more so if the language you’re learning to read in school is different from the language you speak at home. And how can we expect children to learn any other subjects if they don’t know how to read?

With this is mind, I am especially excited to report that with your support, in April, we expanded the Mama Mtoto (Mother-Child) story time program to include 4 more sites near Kisumu, Kenya. Over the next 8 weeks, mothers in the new program will learn to read to their children using both printed and digital story books. In the final weeks of the program we will introduce our new, multi-language digital story book. At this stage, participating mothers will be invited to translate the story into their local dialect--expanding the book's language options to include Swahili, Samia, Kiteso and Luo.

One of the librarians facilitating the Kisumu program is Rosemary Imbayi. After a Maria’s Libraries training on how to implement Mama Mtoto story time, she went home to her primary school in Sigalagala and started the program the very next week—even though it was in the middle of school vacation. Rosemary signed up five mothers and their young children and is working with them to record stories of their life and culture. Rosemary does all of this on her own time. In fact, the only reason there is a library at her school is because she volunteered to start it. She is not paid any extra to run the library; she just does what needs to be done.

Community leaders like Rosemary are at the heart of Maria’s Libraries mission. We are doing this work to ensure that dedicated community librarians have the tools and resources they need to instill cultures of reading in their communities—and sustain their libraries.

Your continued support enables us to partner with local change-makers like Rosemary, and create opportunities for many more families to experience the power of reading with their children. Through Mama Mtoto, dedicated librarians and young mothers are being equipped with the skills and resources to encourage early childhood reading. The impact extends well beyond children’s story time. This early exposure to books, especially printed (or digitized!) in local languages, sets children up for greater success in primary school. Equally important, it enables parents to take a proactive role in their children’s education. As we celebrate children’s book week here in the US, let’s recognize what a difference story books can make!

Rosemary & American Volunteer, Sue Stein

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Feb 14, 2014
Maria's Libraries and the Purple Crayon

By Lauren Gibbons Messner | Executive Director

A screenshot from the Mama Mtoto digital book

Greetings from New York City! I recently assumed the role of Executive Director at Maria’s Libraries. I am honored to be working on behalf of their important efforts in Kenya. A Mama myself, I am especially passionate about our Mama Mtoto story time program. While reviewing what my fellow Mamas in Busia have been working on, I was happy to discover that “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is the English story Mamas most love to read. Harold was my husband’s favorite childhood story time companion, and he is now one of our sons’ favorites too! It struck me as I prepared to write this update that Harold’s story is also a compelling metaphor for our work at Maria’s Libraries.

Harold started off with a simple goal: a walk in the moonlight. With the help of his trusty purple crayon he drew a moon, and a path, and set out on his course. As his journey unfolded, he discovered a long list of obstacles and needs to address. He desires a more interesting landscape, so he creates an apple tree. He worries that his apples might be stolen, so he creates a dragon to guard them. He encounters an ocean, so he creates a sailboat for safe passage. And so it continues, until he longs for sleep and draws himself safely into his own bed.

Like Harold, we started off with a simple goal: teach mothers to read to their children. As our journey unfolded we discovered a need for books that captured local children’s stories, in local languages, so we published a collection of four storybooks created by participants from the original Mama Mtoto Story Time Program. We recognized limitations of printed books in a region with numerous local dialects, so we developed a multi-lingual digital version of the Mama Mtoto storybooks. This technology will enable Mamas to experience stories with their children even if they do not have reading skills themselves.

In the weeks ahead, the Mamas will begin working with this new digital book. Ariel, our new favorite Swahili storyteller Margaret Ronoh, and Esther, a Librarian from Busia Community Library, have been busily recording audio for this book. Readers will be able to read or listen to in multiple languages including Swahili, Samia, and English. This month we’ll do a quick round of user testing with the book in its current state to get an idea of how readers like the interactive features already included. Ultimately, we’d like this early version of the digital books to feature audio for all the original languages in which they were written, which also includes Kiteso, Maa, and Somali.

In the meantime, Mamas are focused on learning to use computers and tablets, and reading the digital version of “Harold”. Mamas told us they are really loving the technology. In addition to enabling them to better support their children’s’ educations, they expressed a number of other important benefits, including:

“Calculating the income and expenses of my business. I was introduced to a bit of excel.”

“Employment skills. I have not yet got a job but if I continue learning how to use the computer I will be able to get a job…These days its a must to be computer literate”

“Its helping me to revive my knowledge that I acquired during my school days.”

And so plans for expanded technology training begin to take shape in our minds.

With your support, we will continue on our path with our proverbial “purple crayon” until we have created solutions to all of the challenges that mothers (and fathers!) in Kenya are facing. We are grateful for your ongoing commitment to these efforts. We couldn’t do any of it without you!

Mamas, and a baby, practice working with tablets

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Oct 10, 2013
The Mamas Meet Their (Digital) Book!

By Sofia Mussa | Research Coordinator

Mama Mtoto

“We will tell people to come to the library and see our book but we already told our kids. They are even waiting for us to finish using the tablets so that they could also use!”

Dear Friends of Maria’s Libraries,

When we started working with groups of young, semi-literate mothers in 2011, many of them reported they had not looked at a book since they left primary school—and none of them had ever used a computer. Flash forward two years later, when last month the mamas met to provide feedback on the first iteration of the digital book that they authored!

The Mamas were delighted and proud to see the fruits of their labor in digital form. They also brought a number of suggestions to the table. “We want audio for the book and animations like the ones in Harold and the Purple Crayon”, one of the Mamas exclaimed. Another Mama suggested the book have pictures of ground nuts so that their children would learn about local plants and foods. The user testing session was a great opportunity to get a sense of what exactly the Mamas wanted out of their digital book.

“We are interested in getting that particular book on our phones…Let those people design the book in a way that will enable us to access it from anywhere on our phone”

With support from the Beyond Access Library Innovators Award, Maria’s Libraries and Oregon State University have piloted Mama Mtoto Digital Storytime. We are excited to continue to develop the digital book so that libraries across Kenya will able to offer quality local content through a number of platforms, including tablet, computer, and mobile!

We are currently raising funds to move forward with the next round of the book design. The development of this program would not be possible without your sustained support. As ever, your contributions are appreciated.

Asante!

Sofia

The Mamas meet their digital book

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