A Book Half a World Away
The following is an email received by the Fraser Valley Regional Library. The book in question was donated to Afretech during a library cull and sent by us to a little school in Kibera. As this was a primary school, we expected that a few more mature books would eventually find their way into individual homes for older
brothers and sisters. That is exactly what happened
I am a student from Vermont, USA, and on one of my trips to Nairobi, East Africa, I visited a friend in Kibera, the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. The estimated population ranges from 200,000 to 1 million people, and nearly all citizens lack clean water and electricity.
While visiting with my friend in his “house (mud room), I saw he had a battered Mary Kate and Ashley Sweet 16 book with an old barcode and the name of your library. He said that he and his friends have read it several times and pass it around to enjoy. It was the last thing I was expecting to see in the slum and took a picture of it. Now I am home but I just thought it would be cool to know that your book had somehow made its way to a place such as Kibera.
