Every year Afretech volunteers gather, sort, pack, fill, and ship large containers to places around the globe where medical and educational resources are in short supply or even non-existent. However, rarely if ever do these volunteers know the impact their efforts have on lives half a world away. This is one of those stories.
Last September, Afretech sent a shipment of medical beds, computers, and elementary school library books to Kenya. In January, our group of volunteers spent time in Laikipia, one of the poorest areas in the country. Most local people there scratch out a living on barren soil and live in mud huts with bits of tin and cardboard completing roofs and windows; few people are gainfully employed
One of our goals was to install a library at Endana Primary School, a remote,
desolate, dusty school with few if any amenities. Goats and sheep wander the schoolyard and the occasional camel walks by.
First all the books had to be processed which meant adding spine labels – either for fiction or non-fiction using the Dewey Decimal System. Once we had finished that chore, we set off with 100 boxes (4000+ books), enough to really make a difference.
The road sometimes disappeared, but we did find the place and unloaded to begin the task of systematically filling the shelves. Only then did we notice a young boy of about 9 watching attentively at the window. A little later we realized he had sidled in and was hunched in a corner. The next time we checked he was under a table, absorbed in a book. Needing help, we coaxed him out and taught him how to file – a chore he took to immediately. He stayed the entire day and at the end we asked him to choose a book for himself.
By then his friend had come to fetch him, and we watched the two of them pore over their new and precious possession as they headed home.
It is possible that having access to all those books may well change their lives. We will never know.
A friend of mine has a saying: “You may never sit under the shade of a tree whose seed you planted.” But you have a made a difference.