14/04/2023
Read below the SKCLRC President's speech during the Launch.
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank you all for gracing us with your presence today. We feel honoured that you chose to share this day with us. Before I read my speech, I would like to appreciate several people who have, so far, walked this journey with us.
1. I appreciate my parents; Bishop Kabindio and Madam Janet, together with the entire Kabindio's Empire, for their unwavering support.
2. I appreciate Prof. Egara Kabaji...the Grandmaster....in whose footsteps in the world of books and writing I walk. I thank him for sending a team from the Kakamega Book Club to be here today.
3. I thank Elder Geoffrey Ngania, who helped me conceptualise the name of the Library. Elder Ngania helped me understand the phrase Sumaneet Kirgit which has variously been used to emphasise on the importance of reading or studying.
4. I thank the Elgon Sub-County Director of Education, Mr. Etyang, with whom we established initial contact with on this project in 2020. Thank you for your support. By extension, I am grateful to the former Bungoma County Director of Education, Mr. Phillip Chirchir, who blessed the establishment of this Library. Gratitude also goes to the current CDE, Mr. Pius Ngoma, for his support.
5. I am grateful to Mwalimu Bosis Boit, my primary school teacher at Kibuk Primary School, for agreeing to walk this journey with his pupil. I am grateful to the BoG, PTA, and the entire school for availing the Resource Centre to house SKCLRC.
6. I am grateful to the schools and pupils present here today. This is actually a day for these pupils. Thank you to other representatives of the basic education sector in Mt. Elgon.
7. I am grateful to all those, far and wide, who gave money or physical books towards this Library. Special mention to our MNA who put his hand in this project. Special mention also goes to the Patron of the Library, Prof. Godrick Mathews Bulitia who is also a son of the soil.
8. I am grateful to the SKCLRC Book Harvest team that worked hard to ensure that we get resources to buy these storybooks.
9. I am thankful to the SKCLRC Executive team who have run with this project right from its initial stages of registration to the Launch. You have worked so hard the last few days to ensure that this day is a success.
10. I am grateful to God for putting this desire to establish a fully-fledged children's library and resource centre in my heart. The vision is big and the fire burns bright in me. I know that He shall provide what we need to actualize this vision.
Now to my speech:
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are gathered here today to launch Sumaneet Kirgit Children's Library and Resource Centre. This is a vision that has been in the offing for years but it was birthed in 2020. It has been a journey of firsts but never has uncertainty or doubts ever been an impediment because this is an idea whose time has come.
I have been a community worker/volunteer with the Elgon Young Professionals for awhile now. My four year stint as the Secretary Genetal of EYP accorded me the opportunity to traverse Mt. Elgon and interact with its people. I experienced, first hand, the challenges that our children have to grapple with. Low literacy levels rank high up in this chain.
A dream was, then, born in me. A dream to see our children read, write and understand issues at the local and global level through different lenses. Therefore, the main objective of this Library is to promote a culture of reading among children in Mt. Elgon. We want to promote reading not as a duty or a requirement to pass exams or to go to the next level of education but as a pleasurable activity that will open up the minds and intellectual capabilities of these children.
My parents and siblings will tell you that I have grown up reading books, novels, newspapers, think pieces, and anything else I can lay my hands on. In turn, I believe that my mind has opened up, and I have been introduced to a whole new way of living in and perceiving the world. I want to believe that it has also made me a pretty good writer and speaker capable of expressing myself in a coherent manner. I am also able to hold my end of a conversation on a number of issues that are of importance in the world we live in.
This is what I desire for the children in Mt. Elgon. To read books. To write. To unlock their creativity. To open up their minds. To freely express themselves. To be unafraid of speaking up. To see the world through these books. To favorably compete with other children. I believe that all these is possible.
Today, we are laying another layer to this foundation. We have books to start us off, a temporary physical space to anchor ourselves, and volunteers willing to conduct active reading sessions with children across the Mountain.
Just to note, inasmuch as this Library is housed at the Kapsokwony Primary School Resource Centre, it will also operate as a mobile Library where books are taken right to where these children are. Active reading sessions will be conducted in schools, churches, playgrounds, shopping centres etc. We do not want these books to gather dust on shelves. We want them to do what they were purchased to do.
So, what are we looking forward to? What are we projecting for the future?
We desire to have a physical space for the Library.
We desire to have more storybooks, ICT-related resources and materials that stimulate the creativity of children.
We desire to expand to Kopsiro, Cheptais and Kaptama.
We desire to have more volunteers to run with this course.
We desire for the unwavering support of the relevant stakeholders.
I, therefore, make a passionate call and appeal. I implore all of us to join this course. Do we have individuals, institutions- both private and public and corporates willing to support this vision? Do we have international partners and donors willing to come on board?
Sumaneet Kirgit Children's Library and Resource Centre is welcoming you to the table where partnerships and collaborations take place. We shall design unique and specific sponsorship bouquets just for you. Come, let us chart the way forward for this Library.
And, together, let us build a reading Elgon nation.
Thank you.
Nashilluh Brendah Kabindio
President, SKCLRC
