Kenya: Youths on a Mission to Raise Literacy Levels

By Eunice Kilonzo

Nairobi---Samuel Macharia Kago, Scofield Awiti Muliru and Sophie Ngele Njaramba sought to be the change they wanted to see in their society. The final year Anthropology students at the University of Nairobi hatched an initiative called Literate Kenya that will seek to address and bridge gaps in the education sector through various programmes. The idea behind Literate Kenya is making a difference through education which is amplified in their Vision: Learn to make a difference.

This comes at a time when literacy levels in Africa are wanting. Over the past years the literacy levels in the continent of about one billion people has improved but by a slight margin. The lower literacy level can be attributed to several factors, such as availability as well as accessibility of education facilities and resources, a poor reading culture, political instability in states such as Liberia, South Sudan as well as the socio-cultural context of a people. The initiative is about youths helping other youths and not waiting for the government to affect their lives; it is driven by the urge about doing something to change the situation. Literate Kenya programmes are based on issues such as: Education, Peer Education on issues of sexual responsibility. Girl Child Absenteeism, Environment conservation, Incorporation of Information Technology into the education system and Relief aid. This year the Initiative is undertaking two main projects: The Books Drive and the Hanger Project.

Scofield Awiti Muliru, Chief Operations Officer of Literate Kenya said “The Books Drive seeks to create a revolving fund or store for the books for students in high schools. This is a result of poor performance in sciences, mathematics and languages especially new schools that are starting in the District level as they do not have enough books compared to the large number of students as a result of free primary and secondary education. This consequently contributes to a lower literacy level amongst the youth and the country as well”.

In a bid to keep the girl child in school, Literate Kenya between August of this year and November in conjunction with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Radio Africa will run the 2 million Campaigns. This campaign is aimed at getting 1 million books and 1 million sanitary towels to be donated in the year 2012.

“Our mission is to support girls annually in all the selected schools all over the republic”. Sophie Ngele, the organizing secretary said.