The Rotary Club of Suna Migori has donated over 30,000 books to support the first-ever public library in Migori town.
The donation included 30,000 international books and 500 local books as part of a partnership agreement between the Club and the Migori County government, revealed the Club’s president George Orinda.
Speaking to the press after the official handover ceremony of the consignment at County’s Musomi offices, Orinda expressed the Club’s desire to improve local literacy by supporting the devolved unit in establishing a Public Library at a central place where more people can access services with ease.
The President announced that the donation package would also see a number of computers purchased, internet installed at the Library for book circulations to visiting customers, modern book shelves fixed at the Library and librarians trained, all to the tune of Sh4.5 million,
“Our donor partner abroad saw it wise to offer financial assistance to the County government of Migori to facilitate the opening of a first public library within Migori town to help locals with a free resource center,” said Orinda
It is very unfortunate that the people in Migori and the entire Country are nursing a disturbing poor reading culture and instead are spending much of their time on social media platforms at the expense of getting more knowledge from books, he remarked.
The official said the move to collaborate with the Migori County government to come up with the facility will boost the local people’s interest in reading.
Within the ongoing Migori town Library project arrangement, the Rotary Club of Suna Migori made a covenant with the County government that it will stock it with books, digitise the facility and train librarians, while Governor Ochilo Ayacko would provide a spacious building to house the facility, buy furniture and work out appropriate modalities for the library’s sustainability.
Orinda said the Club was on with the process of procuring the necessary computers and training workers, adding that the whole effort would end up with the official launch of the library in July.
Migori County Chief officer in Charge of Gender, inclusivity, Culture and Social services, Prof. Rose Ogwang, thanked the Club for the noble gesture and underscored the initiative, saying it has been a key agenda of the county to see that more people become literate within the region.
The establishment of this library in Migori town will open access to learning materials to more people in the region. Since the entire County has only one public library located in Awendo town, she explained.
Prof. Ogwang further stated that Migori town remains central to potential library visitors coming all the way from Kuria land and the vast Nyatike semi-arid region.
According to the chief officer, the reading culture in Migori County still stands below 50 per cent, a situation she blamed for the region’s long clinging to preserve some negative culture and heritage of the existing communities spread in the area.
“As the County looks forward to the official opening of the library in July this year, learners, researchers, writers and the general public remain optimistic to access a large pool of resource materials as the library will be linked with the Kenya National Library Service remotely,” said Ogwang.
By Evett Obuya and Margaret Vangeline
