The physical structures to allow putting up of community libraries are already complete. Mukuru Kwa Njenga SIDAREC Technology and Media Lab are ready for use. What is required is putting up shelves for books, buying chairs and tables and increasing computers that will accommodate more people using the facility.
Community Library in Kibera has been functioning albeit with inadequate facilities to accommodate the surging number of people who wants to use the library facility. Renovation of Pumwani Community Library is going on well and its expected to be completed by early February 2012. The second phase was to stock the structure with books, which SIDAREC is continuously undertaking.
The first donation of books was made possible through an organization in the USA (Books For Africa, which donated 25,000 copies of assorted books, mainly for tertiary institutions and fiction/story books). At the moment, the library lacks local contents that can pool the locals to read. We need pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary books. We also need Kiswahili, African Languages and Oral Literature books. This will also create another opening for reaching out to the community with materials relevant to their education and development.
