Milele has recently been working closely with Regent High School in Camden, London. We wanted to say a very big thank-you to them for taking part in Milele's 'Bring a Book' project by donating their old and unwanted books, which have now been given out to two schools in Kenya.

Royal Academy and New Life School in Mtwapa, Kenya have both benefited from the books from Regent High School in London. The children were very excited to receive them and the teachers were thrilled. One of the teachers receiving books through the Bring a Book project said:

"Thank-you so much for these books—the children love them. They enjoy reading them so much, the only problem is getting the books back at the end of the reading hour!"

Royal Academy is a small local school based in a shanty town, Mtwapa, on the east coast of Kenya. The school works on providing low cost education to children in the area who cannot afford school fees. The director, Mr Bosco, said how pleased he was to be able to read with the children; the books will make a huge difference to their work. New Life School are also benefiting from the books from Regent High (Camden, London). New Life school is also a small school, providing basic education to children in the area who cannot afford school fees. The director, Madam Esther, set the school up because she had no way of educating her own children. This is a common problem and now the school is growing, with more than 50 families asking for their children to attend.

Without basic resources, both these schools are struggling to provide a good level of education for their students. With these new books, the schools hope to dramatically improve literacy, reading, writing and spelling skills.

Follow up work:

Royal Academy has already hosted a Milele volunteer, Agnes, for a few months. She worked with the school to help them arrange the books and use them in small groups with the children. The children very much enjoyed the reading groups and got involved and engaged in learning through books.

After our trip in January we hope to bring you more feedback on the Bring A Book project - keep your eyes peeled on the site for more information.

Once again, thanks so much to Regent High and all our schools on the Bring a Book project, your donations are making a huge difference already.

For more information on our other work with Regent high school and to see photos of some of their home-made dolls being distributed, look at our other news articles.

Amy

One of the biggest achievements of the trip so far was the books distribution. Some of the books collected from each participating school in England were carried to Kenya and handed out to schools with very limited resources in Kenya. Each school received between 90 and 100 books, which were age appropriate for the children there.

The kids were so excited even to be holding the books for the photographs, and just kept staring at them! One of the teachers at a kindergarten school was telling me that since receiving the books they have begun a daily reading session and at the end of the hour they have to practically wrench the books out of the children's hands. It is so lovely to see them using the books and enjoying them so much.

As time goes by I am hopeful that reading will become an important part of the school day for children at these schools, we will be doing lots of follow up work to keep you up to date with what is going on.

Enjoy the pictures!

Hello everyone! We just wanted to say a big thank-you to Old Mill Primary School in Broughton Astley for all their support with Milele.

I am also really excited to announce that they are the first school in the UK to be getting on board with the new Bring a Book project!

Their involvement and commitment will mean that children in Kenya will have greater access to books than ever before, all from old or unwanted books that are no longer useful to their owners here.

Also, a big thank-you goes to the deputy head Mr Davies and the year 6 classes for making me so welcome in their school last week. We had great fun singing and dancing (as well as learning a bit of swahili) and also learnt lots of interesting facts about Kenyan culture and different tribal traditions. Want to know which Kenyan tribe removes 6 teeth from the lower jaw as part of tribal initiation? Which is famous for their signiture dancing and which tribe most commonly practices traditional medicine and witch-doctors? Ask the year 6 children at Old Mill!

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the children were really engaged with a lively and passionate debate, deciding what would be the best use for the £200 they fundraised at the school christmas fayre last year (kindly donated by the school PTA). After a very close vote, the class decided that 40 new mosquito nets should be given to families in Kenya to help protect babies and young children from fatal Malaria; a disease which is one of the biggest killers of children under 5.

In the words of one of the children in their 'persuasive writing':

"It will be like Malaria doesn't even exist any more"

What a wonderful thought - it sounds pretty persuasive to me!

Thank-you once again to everyone at Old Mill, in particular to Helen at the PTA for making this visit possible and to Tracey and Lorraine in the Library for your support with the Bring a Book project!

Photos of the new nets will follow - keep your eyes peeled!

Hello! I wanted to give you an update on the new 'Bring a Book' scheme we are launching. Read on to find out more about how your school could get involved.

The new ‘Bring a Book’ scheme will encourage children in schools here in the UK to bring in an old or unwanted book that they no longer need, which will then be taken out to a school in Kenya where the children just don’t have access to a wide range or literature in the same way we do. We all know the huge social, emotional and education benefits books bring, and I am really excited to launch a new project helping children in Kenya to use and develop their knowledge and experience of reading!

To launch the project I would love the opportunity to visit UK schools and work with the children. We have a ‘Introduction to Kenya’ pack for schools which includes loads of exciting, fun and hands-on activities such as learning some basic Swahili and some Swahili songs, trying out Kenyan musical instruments, investigating the culture and traditional clothing of some of the tribes in Kenya and perhaps even having a go at some Kenyan cookery! I find that this is a great way for the children to get interested in and learn about Kenya, the culture, language and way of life as well as some of the challenges people face in their daily lives in a fun, engaging and accessible way. Working with Milele can also be extremely beneficial for the school, helping them to increase their cross-cultural diversity. One of the groups we have worked with before said:

"The things we have done with Milele are really lovely, the children enjoy them and at the last Ofstead inspection they pretty much single-handedly got us an 'outstanding' rating in the area of cultural diversity!"

I am happy to work with small groups over a longer period of time, or to do a combination of assembly and small group work, whatever works best for the school. The activities can also be easily adapted to suit different ages, from nursery school to college. I do not charge anything to come in and work with the children – I would just like the opportunity to engage with the school and see if any of the children or staff would like to get involved with the ‘Bring a Book’ scheme or any of our many other projects in Kenya. The fact that we are such a small, grassroots charity really gives the chance for the children and staff to get to know the children we work with and to be as hands on as they would like!

If you are reading this blog and you are a teacher or member of staff at a children’s setting please do not hesitate to get in touch with me on 07950329398 or by email at amy@milele.org.uk. I would absolutely love to hear from you! You can also find out more about Milele on our website www.milele.org.uk

Amy