Kenya Reads is more than just a literacy program for Kenyan students in the slum of Kiamaina — it aspires to fundamentally change a community through education and opportunity. Started by two Oberlin students, College juniors Shauna Godfrey and Pete Njamunge, Kenya Reads is the culmination of years of planning. By providing a mentorship program, a community center and library and financial assistance with the cost of uniforms and books, Kenya Reads hopes to help students of all ages.

“There are also a lot of barriers to access of education,” said College junior Ty Dilinger, who is one of the main organizers of Kenya Reads. “You need school uniforms to get in school and a lot of kids can’t afford them, and can’t afford the upkeep. So what we want to do is … find ways to reduce the barriers to education so there is a smoother path to getting to school.”

Kiamaina has been close to Njamunge’s heart ever since childhood. He moved there with his mother when he was around eight. At that time, primary school was not free, and virtually no one in his community attended school. Njamunge dropped out, but over the years, teachers encouraged him to begin school again, and he attended sporadically. Eventually, Njamunge focused on his studies and earned a full four-year scholarship to one of the best high schools in the area. He and his mother moved out of Kiamaina when he was thirteen, but he promised himself that when he had a chance he would go back and try to make a difference.

“I couldn’t stop thinking, ‘If I came back, what could I do for them?’” Njamunge said. “And I did come back when I finished high school in 2007. I just started thinking about what I didn’t have [when I was young] that could have helped me stay in school, and that’s how Kenya Reads came into my mind. … I just promised myself when I had some money to do something, I would bring more materials out to them.”

Njamunge and Godfrey began brainstorming a service project during their first year. Njamunge had already taught some evening classes back in Kenya before starting college, but he wanted to do something to promote literacy and help more students receive an education. Out of this desire, Kenya Reads was born.

This past summer, the pair went to Kenya and started a lending library with Njamunge’s former primary school and another school. They also started a mentoring partnership between the school and local university students.

This summer, Kenya Reads will be able to use a $10,000 scholarship from Davis Projects for Peace and another $1,000 from LaunchU, a program designed to help Oberlin students and alumni achieve their entrepreneurial ideas.

“[LaunchU is] the single biggest, most important thing I have ever learned in social entrepreneurship. I think it is worth more than probably any other class I have taken at this school,” said Njamunge. “We did not really know how to present ourselves. We did not have a business model. We had a good idea, a vision for where we wanted to be, but [LaunchU] structured everything.”

This summer, Kenya Reads is planning on expanding its operations by opening a new community center. The center will include a sewing area, where skilled women from a local women’s center will make school uniforms. Students will be able to buy uniforms at half the regular cost, meaning that more children will be able to attend school. The revenue made from the uniforms will be split between the women who work at the center and the center itself to help with operating costs. Dilinger said that the goal of the summer will be to “transition from a charity, which we were before, to a social enterprise, because we [will be] self-sustaining.”

In addition to the sewing project, the new community center will also feature a community library — the first in the area. The mentorship program that was started last summer will move to this community center so that students do not have to stay after school.

Back in Oberlin, Kenya Reads hopes to start a pen pal program between local Ohio schools and students in Kenya. The organizations leaders also hope to do fundraising through read-a-thons and other literacy-based events, as well as hosting talks in order to raise the profile of international work on Oberlin’s campus. In addition, they hope to lead a Winter Term trip to Kiamaina next year.