The Joska community is located in Machakos county in Kenya. The community has over 3000 homes and it is a rural urban setting. 

The MASH Foundation community library also known as the Joska Spot was started on the 12th April 2016 after Charles and Tina visited some schools around Joska and realised most pupils had a challenge in reading as well as writing in English. At the time, the new curriculum was introduced to the schools — each school was required to have a library for its pupils but most lacked the funds to purchase books for one. Many pupils come from struggling families, who are not able to purchase adequate storybooks to read at home either. The founders of the Spot thus challenged themselves to start a community library and meet this need. They shared this idea with local friends, on social media platforms, and to friends abroad.

The first 20 story books and textbooks were donated by a university graduate called Rita. Later, more books were received from friends Sean and Jim through the Ortho Link company. They shipped over 2000 books, and with this, all the schools around the community were invited to visit the Spot on Saturdays from 9am to 4 pm. During the long school holidays, the Spot opened on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

In the beginning, the reading room was only 10 by 10 feet — it was a bit of a challenge to hold more pupils, but over the years, more friends came along to help. Secure Kenya company gave 60 iron sheets; Jai Fu from China, helped extend the wall thus increasing the reading area; Tito helped put concrete slabs on the floor since the floor was rocky and dusty; Kenya National Library gave over 400 books and other local friends donated textbooks and storybooks too. Susan, a school teacher in Europe, shipped over 400 books and visited the library too, while Sonal, helped with plastering the walls, installing a gate to the library, and bought chairs and tables. 

EduSpot’s CEO Cat visited the community and supported the cause. EduSpots helped to put in three metallic windows, a metallic door, bought some chairs and tables for the library and extended the exterior part of the library to create more reading space for children using the community library. In addition, EduSpots also purchased and donated over 70 local storybooks, and included the library in the wider volunteer network, providing an opportunity to learn new skills to enhance the Catalysts involvement in the Spot and interaction with their wider community. 

Over the years, many challenges have arisen and this has required the Catalyst to improve or change their service delivery too. The number of pupils visiting the Spot was reducing since some families relocated, some pupils moved into boarding schools, while others went for tuition on Saturdays. This prompted the trustees and Catalyst to carry out much more awareness campaigns to attract more pupils to the library. In 2020, the Spot started satellite school libraries in five schools. The satellite school libraries receive 200-300 books for three months. After every three months, the Catslyst team selects a new set of books for replacement. This means the books will be used by all pupils on a rotation basis, and the teachers in charge ensure pupils borrow and return the books to the school libraries. 

Apart from giving children a chance to read books, the Spot holds talent shows during long school holidays to help pupils showcase and develop their talents. The Spot also organises book clubs, spelling bees, Maths quiz, computer classes and art classes. The Spot has two computers with which the learners receive computer classes, as well as research information online.  Children from ages 5 and above are involved and encouraged to read the books, while teens, youth and adults also get free access to the books at the Spot, and can participate in all activities done at the Spotfor free.

The beneficiaries increased from 50 pupils to over 2000 pupils across the satellite school libraries. The teachers have seen great improvement in the pupils’ speaking, reading and writing in English since the school’s satellite libraries were started in 2020. The Spot librarian has also seen great improvement in learners’ confidence to participate in the spelling bee and Maths quiz, as even the more timid learners have been motivated through having gained immense vocabulary with reading.

The Spot has a dream to open over 20 satellite school libraries and reach over 10,000 pupils. They also aspire to increase local storybooks and the number of books loaned from 200 to 500 per school.  They seek to network and partner with more friends to support logistics and operational cost, thus reaching more beneficiaries in their community with knowledge and information for free. This will enhance a collective initiative and impact the future of the community.

A video on the impact of school satellite libraries.