We are back at Bright Girls in Shella to setup the library space there. The airy coastal design is immediately evident in the space.
As always with our Program, the students play an active role in setting up the space. Here they are helping sort and label the books, which range from the Quran (front right) to Jewel’s Autobiography (front left).
Our bookshelves are always staged to flow from Non-Fiction to Fiction. Here we see girls setting up the Fiction, Series, and Poetry sections. This is a fabulous way for them to get to know all of the books as well.
One of my favorite inclusions in our History section is this amazing African History series published by UNESCO. It’s a significant investment but heralded by many academics as the first of its kind – a thorough and comprehensive history from the very beginning until present day. This is a huge component to the curriculum taught at schools. 
We will never interrupt students who slip into quiet reading while doing the library setup. The curiosity and interest they have in the books is tremendously rewarding to us, and something we will always encourage.
A lovely photo of some of the students helping set up the space. Most of them live in Lamu town – about a 50 minute walk from the school. They had to get special permission from their parents to help set up the space (as the school was not open that day), and the conservative culture was evidenced in the anxious calls we received from the mothers the moment the girls needed to start walking home so that they arrived well in time before sunset.
One of the students showing her little sister the books – perhaps a future Bright Girl!