For those who think setting up a library is as easy as taking books out of a box and placing them on shelves, think again. Our program follows a precise model where books are catalogued, divided into subjects, and then balanced according to respective grade levels (i.e. it makes no sense if your entire science collection is for an upper primary reading level to the detriment of lower primary). They are then numbered, stamped, and covered. IT has to be installed (smart board and computers), furniture has to be purchased, etc. The library space has to be cleaned up and prepared for the new donation. So there is a tremendous amount of background work that goes into the program before the books and IT are delivered to a library.
We put together a team of 30 people for the Nairobi Primary donation. This was a particularly large donation because the school has 2,000 students and we donated over 2,500 books to meet their needs. Lots of people, lots of work – some got paid, others volunteered.