idealist.org

The reading culture among the children in Kikuyu district is very low and particularly the orphans and vulnerable children whom the psycho social support needs have not been fully met but has been concentrated in provision of basic needs like food ,shelter and clothing thus neglecting the social aspect e.g. recreation/leisure activities. This has been compounded by the poverty levels among the parents/ guardians of the children and the economic status of the area which is largely semi arid thus limited economic activities and gains. This has rendered the buying of children story books as secondary to other things. The government also through the free primary education can also be blamed for the low provision of funds to buy story books for the children thus negating the aspect of leisure reading in expense of read for exams based approach. Kikuyu district has over 4000 orphans and over 50,000 going school children in public schools who cannot access story books, this situation has largely been magnified by lack of community library that can serve or fill the void of provision of affordable books for leisure reading to the children and youth .Due to lack of books as one way of positive recreation/leisure alternatives ,this situation has bred a culture of idle or TV kids thus adopting negative vices like drug abuse, pre marital sex ,violence and undeveloped self awareness/ esteem and lack of critical thinking among the children in making informed choices. The proposed project”Vitabu Mashinani” will fill the void of an alternative recreation but also change the attitude of children in reading for leisure rather than for exams thus promoting the reading culture in our locality. This will also go along way in provision of accurate information to the children(adolescents)on social issues like drug abuse, hiv/aids, reproductive health, sexuality (much of it is not taught in schools) as they grow up thus making informed choices in future rather than experimenting in these vices.
TARGET BENEFECIARIES
The project will target 2000 children mainly the orphans and vulnerable between the ages of 9-13 years.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Broad objectives
• To increase the access of affordable and available diverse story books/social books to children particularly the OVCs in public primary schools
• To promote, nurture and foster the leisure reading culture among the children which can be translated from childhood to adulthood.
• To promote creative arts e.g. poetry, drama, public speaking, story telling, debates among the children.
• To increase the levels of self esteem among the children due to expression as they engage in debates, poetry and story telling.
• To initiate reading clubs in public primary schools.
Expected outcomes
• Increased readership among the children thus promoting the reading culture among the children
• Increased levels of reading grammar and comprehension among the children thus rising the mean score grades in exams
• Increased levels of transition of reading culture from childhood to adulthood.
• Increased awareness on importance of reading culture among the parents and guardians of the children.
• Increased levels of creative arts e.g. debates, creative writing, reading clubs in public schools
PARTICIPATION
The idealist community can participate in this program through ADOPT AN ORPHAN strategy where one is required to hire the story books for the orphans(s) for a year, bi annually or monthly.
RELEVANT FEES
The rate of hiring the story books is
Per year per child USD 15
6 months 8 USD
1 month 3 USD
Story books @ USD 5
We therefore appeal for organizations, individuals; companies to partner with us to realize this project .We do also need any advice on the same that can assist us in the project.

CONTACTS
GIDEON GACHARA
yofcag@yahoo.com,yofcag@gmail.com
+254 20 206 5936,721 249 468,720 744 938