About Lamu Beach Books
Our goal is to collect a wide range children’s books and to freely make them available to the archipelago of Lamu and the community in Shela village where our first library will be based.
The library will support learning and provide enjoyment of the islands children via the existing local schools and to the community at large.
There are a number of small local government and private schools on the island, but unfortunately there is a general lack higher quality children’s reading material on the coast of Kenya, and we would like to change this. Our hope is that by expanding access to age appropriate books and stories we can provide the islands children with a positive alternative to short-form videos streamed on social media.
As an Explore Lamu backed initiative we hope collect books and raise funds from UK schools, individuals, visitors to Lamu and businesses. If you would like to make a donation towards this project you can do this securely through this website using your credit card or apple pay.
All funds that are raised for this project will be used to transport books to the island from the UK, and will enable to secure a permanent premises for the library and to employ local staff who will manage the day to day operations.
Our longer term goal is to to buy an old Lamu sailing dhow which will be used as our beach library and outreach programme which will take our books further into the archipelago and expand access to the collection.
Initially the books that are collected and shipped to Lamu island will be safely stored at Wimbi House in Shela village, which will be used as our base of operations and which will provide an accessible location and place where the community can feely access and benefit from the collection.
We hope that by working with UK schools we will be able to expand our collection of books and collect the funds used to transport them to the islands.
Its our hope that schools and students who participate in the project will be able to visit the islands and help with the beach books project in the village, or perhaps on an outreach mission on a Beach Books sailing dhow. We hope that visitors to the island will be inspired to bring and then donate their old children’s books, and to join in with and read stories for young children as part of a weekly story time event.
If you would like to participate in fundraising and book collections, or even plan a school trip to the islands please do get in touch with Explore Lamu directly.
