Doing More: How I Launched a Big Impact Literacy Project
By District Governor Nominee Leonard Ithau
In July 2016, I became President of the Rotary Club of Karen. I considered it a major personal challenge to raise and move our club up in all of the important measurement metrics – membership, retention, foundation giving, and greater impact of our projects. The Rotary Club of Karen has always been very strong on literacy, specifically on book donations to needy schools, causing me to frame this area as being a specific focus for enhancement in my year.
So on October 12, 2016 I penned an email to Oxford University Press requesting donations of Kiswahili dictionaries (Kamusi) to five schools and a children’s home in the Karen/Langata area. I knew I was being presumptuous and added that I would be happy to receive 100 books for each of the intended recipients!
To my delight and surprise, nearly 5 months later I received a reply from Oxford indicating that they would not be donating the 600 books I requested, but would instead be giving us 50,000 books to be donated to needy schools throughout the country!
My head went into a spin….. how are we going to receive and distribute so many books? All over Kenya? I wondered if I had bitten more than I could chew. When I finally recovered, I called a meeting with the Club Board and spelled out the issues, and the solution that came out of the meeting was simple and neat. Rotary Club of Karen would be the “operating” club to receive, distribute the books on behalf of the District and would use the entire country network of clubs to collect and distribute the books to the needy schools within their respective communities.
In case you are wondering what 50,000 books look like, well it fills a 40-foot container to the brim. Where would we put them? I made an enquiry with the Country Chair and he advised there was no space at the Country Office – so what would we do? – rent commercial storage space? We finally decided that the books be delivered and stored in my garage at home after, of course, consulting with the “owner”.
We then had to figure how to re-arrange all these books into dedicated packages for each of the recipient schools. Here, thanks to my colleague Presidents and Rotaractors we held a fun day at my house arranging and packaging the books enough for 150 schools! And those present left with well-earned books packages for delivering to their schools.
And so began a 5-year arrangement with Oxford University Press that is going into its fourth year. The impact has been tremendous – estimated at close to 1.0 million children county-wide.
What lessons can we draw from this? I can think of four:
- Do not be afraid to ask – the answer may surprise you!
- Elevate your ambitions – it is quite feasible for you to impact much further than your immediate neighborhoods.
- Make use of the Rotary Club network that is fully available to you to expand and deepen your impacts.
- The Rotary Organisation is a powerful brand. Be proud of it and use it to the fullest to serve the communities in our District, and indeed the world!
In conclusion, I would like to thank Oxford University Press for their robust support and generosity to Rotary and our communities and look forward to expanding and deepening our mutually beneficial relationship.
