Our reading Spaces

Sometimes in life you meet people that inspire the socks off you and make you re-think our life. I had the opportunity today to meet a lady that is touching lives in the community around her because she dared to dream. Irene Mbari-Kirika has started a foundation called our reading spaces www.ourReadingSpaces.org when she visited her shags and realized that there was no library for the kids from surrounding schools to go to. They had no access to books or computers. This is in Thika which is 40-50 kilometers from the Capital City of Kenya: Nairobi. This gave birth to our reading spaces whose aim is to set up a library in rural areas starting with kairi village where they will fill it up with books from one of their partners Books for Africa who are situated in the States. When she set out to actually carry out the project Irene found out that the situation was more dire. Thika also is home to Thika School for the Blind but after school where do these men and women go? They are not in our offices employed as we are but yet they need to earn a living. On top of that HIVAIDS was highly prevalent among them and they have no access to ARV's. They have no economically viable business and do not have access to information and education to develop a sustainable economic activity. Irene then set out to find partners who would help make a change in this community and she harbors big dream. The community donated land for the Library so they need an additional piece of land to build a library big enough for the village. Irene has also been able to open the first computer lab in the area but it only has 15 computers. She is investing in IT training for the visually impaired to help them become self sufficient. Then the next thing she wants to do is set up entrepreneurial activities that will make the communities have a sustainable economy since no one is willing to invest in them, they invest in themselves. She has various partners including the rotary club and access Kenya who put up free internet access.
If you are interested in partnering with Our reading spaces please go to there website or find them on face book. But whatever you do you must think of a way of giving back and investing in the fellow Kenyan that is not as exposed as you are. If you thought life was bad with high food prices; water and electricity rationing; remember there is a visually impaired person in Kenya getting 10 shillings in exchange for sex so they can put their kids through school and get a meal; there is a child living a few minutes from your home who has no idea what their future is beyond their village.