A library, café and community centre all in one. That's Rael's Books & Coffee Corner. A place where people meet, learn and discuss over a delicious cup of Kenyan tea. Thanks to the work of a group of volunteers, the community centre opened to its first customers on 24 February 2023.
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The Story
The early days of Rael's Books & Coffee Corner date back to 2021. That's when we realized that the area lacked a welcoming place for people to simply meet. Interpersonal interaction is very important in life, and it is not always convenient or comfortable to meet in someone's home. The nearest public place where locals could meet was a 30-minute drive from our village. In addition, there is not a single café in the whole area, and then not even a library. The nearest library was more than 3 hours away. So we decided to combine the library and the café together and set up a community centre.The community center is located on a new piece of land donated by Kennedy for the project. The land is by the road, has electricity and is about a 15-minute walk from our school and nursery. It is also in close proximity to Unga High School, whose students and teachers have started using the community centre extensively since it opened.
The centre is now fully operational. People come to read English and Swahili books in the library or chat in the café. The locals especially love chapati and mandazi at the café. These savoury cakes or sweet muffins are most often washed down with specially prepared tea and milk. In addition, Pheobe and Evaline, who serve at the café, prepare lunch every day, such as ugali with meat or some other local delicacy. And because they are the girls in the right place, it's no wonder that people from all over the area regularly head here.
We also use the centre to hold educational seminars. We started with lectures on sex education, the teaching of which has been sorely lacking in the area. Under the guidance of experienced local mentors, we now hold bi-weekly seminars that can be attended free of charge by area youth. Needless to say, the interest is enormous. We would like to expand the portfolio of workshops in the future. Locals would like to see workshops on computer work, foreign language learning, or special circles for widowed women to help participants overcome difficult life situations.
How to support?
You can become a patron of the new workshop on the above-mentioned topics. The cost of a one-time one-day workshop is $50. However, it would be ideal if more of them could be held, ideally with some regularity, as is the case with the sex education workshops, whose kind patron is Valeria Bankoova and ThermVisia company. The community centre can accommodate up to 40 participants. We will use the patron's contribution to buy them light refreshments and pay for professional trainers.You can also help by donating any English books. Our library is now about half full, so it is clear what the main goal is - to have it full. We really appreciate any type of book, for children and adults, educational books and fiction. However, they must be completely in English.
Of course, we also appreciate financial contributions to purchase Swahili books in Kenya. In the case of such a donation, please indicate this designation in the payment note. We will then send you a photo of exactly what we have purchased for the library with your donation.
Last but not least, you can also help by going to the community center to work as a volunteer or volunteer. Please contact us for more information.