Figtree Anglican Church has shown support to Kenya’s urban poor by working with a Christian organisation there to provide libraries to children living in Nairobi’s slums.

The project, known as Angaza Beyond, came about through a connection with the Nairobi Chapel church. It was developed to provide support to the poorest children in communities where many schools are direly under-resourced, and many children struggle to gain even a basic level of literacy.

Figtree’s outreach and evangelism minister, the Rev Lachlan Edwards, says the church “invited Pastor Oscar Meroo from the chapel here last year, and he said one of the key things people around him need is an education and a dream beyond their existence in the slums. “When we heard this we thought, ‘This is actually something we could do’, by sending a container full of books that could be used by schools as resources – in a scenario where often they’re lucky to be able to provide a single book of any sort amongst 10 children.” The project was quick to take off, with the first container sent in July.

A further five containers are planned, taking in tens of thousands of quality book donations not only from church members, but from the wider communities of Figtree and the greater Illawarra. “The church got on board very quickly and everyone’s been excited about it,” Mr Edwards says. “But we were keen to not only get adults and kids at church donating books, we also wanted to use it in outreach by inviting people from the Illawarra region to get involved as well. The response has been exceptional.” It’s also a project that has allowed church members to put to use skills that often don’t see a lot of use in a church context.

Painters, interior designers and librarians have teamed up to sort books and pack the container, but also upgrade it to a mobile pop-up library that will be almost entirely ready to use the moment the doors are opened in Nairobi. “God raised up exactly the people we needed at the exact right time for this to really work, including seven retired librarians already in our congregation who had been looking for a ministry project to get involved in,” Mr Edwards says. “We’re very thankful for them and for God’s hand in that.” Donations for the next container open this month. Plans are also being made to send staff and lay people to Nairobi to help establish the program, find other potential avenues of support and further develop the link with Nairobi Chapel and groups in the city.

“We’ve given the librarians two weeks off and then the plan is to chuck them right back in,“ Mr Edwards jokes. “But in all seriousness, this has been a great project not only in terms of what can be done on the ground in Nairobi, but also for bringing our church and our local communities together. We want to keep going with that in partnership with Nairobi Chapel and keep working at what we can improve as well.”

Photo: Stocking the container library with good books