Library Shares a Glimpse of Life in Kenya

The  held  on Thursday evening to showcase the recent visit to the country by Librarian May Hogan through the organization American Friends of Kenya.

AFK is a Connecticut based volunteer group that promotes social betterment among the Kenyan poor through an assortment of activities such as building schools, setting up health clinics, and sending supplies to existing medical and educational facilities.

Hogan participated in AFK’s library program, a cornerstone of the organization’s humanitarian efforts. She and her co-volunteers brought thousands of donated books to Kenyan libraries and conducted workshops to train librarians.

Her group also worked in a new all-girls school that AFK established in the Kibera district, one of the nation’s most impoverished slums. 

The librarian showed slides from her trip as well as an AFK promotional video. She exhibited several cultural items, including a staff from the Masai tribe that signifies authority and Kenyan neck rings.

Two of Hogan’s colleagues from the excursion, school librarian Maureen Rust and library consultant Audra Zimmerman, co-presented the event. The ladies paused frequently during the informal session to take questions from a small, but captive audience.

After the program, the trio treated audience members to Kenyan refreshments including banana chips, mangoes, and chai tea.

The event was part of the  titled Novel Destinations.