From Kirsten and Lisanne:
We recently reached out to the headmasters in Busia District to invite them to visit the Busia Community Library, encourage their teachers to promote it and call upon their students to use it. We (Esther, Lisanne and Kirsten) organized, with the Busia Department of Education, to hold a short presentation to headmasters at one of their monthly meetings. We used the opportunity to introduce the library’s staff, provide information on the technology and services available in the library and to share with the headmasters what kinds programs have been taking place in the library, like Mama Mtoto (Mother Child) Story Time, an early childhood development and literacy program; Watato kwa Watoto (Children for Children), a tablet computer-based peer-to-peer learning project for students from underperforming schools; and the upcoming ICT for Farmers (also called i-Subira), set up in cooperation with another Kenyan organization, CABE.
At the end of the presentation Ariel called the headmasters to action to support the library by promoting it and contributing to it in the future. In addition to this, she made an offer to the headmasters: they were invited for a personal tour and consultation with the librarians as well as make use of complimentary computer classes with Lisanne and Kirsten on August 2nd and August 8th, on a drop in basis between 3 and 5pm. The following day all the computers in the library were occupied by a headmaster or two. During the lesson Kirsten and Lisanne taught the headmasters the basics of Microsoft Word, how to set up email accounts, browse the internet and shared tips on how to write a CV (to the best of their ability). When the lesson was over the headmasters left enthusiastic about what they had picked up in just two hours and promised to make use of the library in the future!
