Kenya to make history with Worlds First Collectively Written Book by a Nation

Kenya embarked on a journey on  22^nd of September this year: The world’s first collectively written book by a nation.

The goal is to raise Ksh 30 million in 90 days to build 100 libraries.

This will be a homegrown solution that will involve every Kenyan.

Led by Chela, Kenyans are urged to get their creative juices and words ready.

Chela is a ten-year-old girl who has taken it upon herself to collect stories for herself and the ten million children like her who don’t have access to libraries.

She is being aided by well-wishers including Auma Obama who is the patron for this great cause. She is asking every person to contribute to these collective works of art.

The campaign, dubbed #StoryForChela is spearheaded by “Start A Library”, an affiliate of Storymoja.

“Start A Library” is the first campaign hosted on the e-philanthropy platform, Yetu .

The Yetu initiative is backed by The Aga Khan Foundation, USAID and various other partners to facilitate communal giving and problem solving.

This campaign is poised to bring a nation together in contributing both money and words.

Like most things in life, necessity is the mother of invention. A silent crisis has gripped this country and it is in the form of illiteracy.

Despite record high attendance occasioned by free primary education illiteracy still plagues many children.

Less than a third of class three pupils have basic reading skills and 10 % of class 8 children can’t read class 2 English or Kiswahili.

Children simply don’t have access to reading materials as evidenced by the fact that only 2% of Kenyan schools have libraries.

Children are in need of stories to spur their creativity, imagination and their intelligence and it will be up to every Kenyan to heed this noble call.

The writing begins at www.yetu.org/startalibrary. For as little as Sh. 10 you will be making history one word at a time. Write your story for Chela.