A big thank you to our kind Arizona book donors! 643 books - fiction and non-fiction, adult and children went to the Uasin Gishu County Library, the only public library in that multi-county region of Kenya. Donna and George Hartz had visited the library director the previous November (before the conversion to local control) and were very impressed with her enthusiasm and plans.
During our August 2023 member trip to Kenya, we made a call at the Uasin Gishu County Library. The library has about 34,000 books - about 90% of which are non-fiction. This is logical for support to students, business entrepreneurs, etc. But the several million residents within the library's territory have few options for reading for enjoyment and to build a life-long love of reading. The library would love to build up its supply of works of fiction.
When the group returned, a book collection campaign began. Boxes of books were to fill in the spaces of a medical supply container headed to Kenya. The first fourteen boxes of donated books were loaded onto the container in Peoria, then driven to San Pedro (California), then by ship to Mombasa (Kenya), then by truck to Kampala (Uganda) for customs clearance, then by truck to Bukwo (Uganda), then Peter drove them in his truck to Uasin Gishu, (Kenya) where they were stored until the necessary government officials were assembled to allow Kennedy Kibet to present the book donations on our behalf - and it finally happened February 6!
Many thanks to all the donors, and to Peter Ole-Sabay who made it all possible.
Attached are four photos from the ceremony (Note the Arizona flag!!) plus a view of the library.