Group promotes reading culture in Mombasa slums

  Young professionals have come together to promote reading culture among children and youth in Mombasa slums.

Sparkling Minds Association has partnered with the Mombasa county library to give books to children and youth in slums like Moroto and Mburukenge in Tudor and Buxton in Mvita subcounty.

“We will be reading with the children. The reading culture has died in Kenya and we want to bring it back,” Caren Owuor, the SMA operations director, said on Saturday.

The aim of the association, which started last year, is to change the mindset of the young people to embrace the reading culture and make a difference in their lives.

“We believe the youth are the backbone of our country and if we can start the change from the youth and children, we believe we are going to go far," Owuor said.

“The book club was an idea of the members to go out and reach out to the slum dwellers. We have decided to come to the ground, read with the children, know their needs and see how we can fill in the gaps.”

During the reading sessions, Owuor said, the team will be identifying talents as they engage in fun games to make the reading sessions interesting for the children.

The book club is for all the children and youth, including those who have never been to school and those who have dropped out.

With a reading culture instilled, SMA envisions, there will be a change in attitude and behaviour.

This, in turn, will also help curb issues of crime and criminal gangs, Owuor said.

“The youth will not be forming a gang of muguka, but a gang of youth who want to open a business and make life better for themselves,” Owuor said.

SMA will eventually spread its wings to Kilifi and Kwale.

The programme has the blessings of the Ministry of Education and the local administration.

The ministry will be looking to find out the impact it will have, then incorporate it into schools in the future.

SMA ambassador Stephen Monyo said in Moroto many people join primary school but the number decreases drastically as they join secondary and tertiary education.

Monyo comes from Moroto slums and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in education at Pwani University in Kilifi county.

“This is because most learners from slums do not take reading or education seriously, because most of them would want to indulge in business, no matter the type of business, so as to get quick money,” he said.

Monyo said he decided to join the association to be an inspiration to many of the slum dwellers in Mombasa.

He said being raised in the slum has a lot of challenges, including lack of school fees, lack of proper learning facilities and lack of books for the few schools in the slums.

“A book club like this, something I did not get the opportunity to engage in when I was young, will help create that interest in reading and education,” Monyo said.

He said with such an initiative, he expects more people from slums to join universities and colleges and school dropout rate to significantly reduce.

Mombasa county librarian Caroline Gachako said they help by providing the books to the children in the slums, where most cannot afford to buy their own.

“Apart from the reading, the children are involved in other creative games to make reading more fun and attract them to the library,” she said.

Gachako said SMA borrows the books for about a month and returns them in exchange for other books.

“Currently, in the Mombasa county library, we have about 30,000 books that cut across all subjects and genres for all groups of people,” she said.

Gachako urged parents to encourage their children to use the public library, saying it is a safe space for them.

Deputy county commissioner Ronald Mwiwawi said Mombasa is struggling in education matters.

“I’m so encouraged with this initiative that seeks to grow interest in reading in children. I would only appeal to the founders to not only target slums, but other areas as well,” he said.

Mwiwawi said Mombasa needs to build its human capital and this will only be done if all residents embrace education.

“With the spirit of devolution, without human capital, then we are doomed,” he said.

Ernest Wachira, a parent from Moroto slums, said they do not have money to buy books for their children and the SMA Book Club comes in handy for them.

“We do not have textbooks even in schools. This event brings the textbooks to the children. It is a plus for us,” he said.