The Marcus Garvey Library and Cyber provides desperately needed job skills, information, and literacy services to the entire Kibera community: men, women, and children. The two-pronged project is housed in the second floor of the Shining Hope Community Center, and opened its doors to the public in April, 2011.
The community library allows community members to come and read books (or listen to our extensive audio selection) completely free-of-charge. Our community library includes nearly a thousand titles, and is growing by the day: fiction, non-fiction, children’s, reference, and books on tape. We are currently partnering with library experts in the U.S. to completely digitize the library so that it is searchable by computer, and books are able to be checked out by residents. The library will host adult education and literacy classes, children’s story-hour, and a newspaper readership program. The library will not only make these books accessible to the public—but by creating a unique, safe space within the slum that celebrates reading—we believe the library will be able to spur culture-changing attitudes in the community that supports family literacy and girls’ education.
The income-generating cyber computer center hosts six computers all outfit with high-speed internet and basic computer software packages. Our cyber computer center is in fact one of the only wireless hubs in Kibera! Community members are able to access the internet at an accessible rate and print and copy documents. The cyber will also host computer training classes, which are extremely in-demand in the community. In addition, the cyber will be able to double as a computer lab for the Kibera School for Girls students. In today’s incredibly tough job market in Kenya, those who grow up in places like Kibera face extreme obstacles to attaining the skills they need to be competitive for jobs that will allow them to provide for their families. Our cyber center will allow our promising students and their community to bridge that gap—and attain the skills they need to build a better life.