 Yes, sorry for that small technical hitch right there. My name is Barry Moses. It's Barry Mo on social media, and you know what it is. It's time for Strength of a Woman on Queens Wednesday on Why in the Morning. So we try to highlight stories of Queens who are doing amazing stuff for the society, for themselves. So if you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, you can hit them up, or you can tell them to hit us up. So we can share their stories as well. Our social media handles are WhiteFive4Channel on Twitter, WhiteFive4UnderscoreChannel on Instagram, and WhiteFive4 on Facebook. My Strength of a Woman of the Day goes by the name Eunice Njoki, and she's an entrepreneur, she's a philanthropist, and she's the founder of Maktaba Machinani Foundation, Karibusana. That's what it's all about. All right, your camera is number four right there. All right. You can just say hi to the people and just introduce yourself briefly. Okay, hi people. My name is Eunice Njoki, and I lead the Maktaba Machinani team. We've been doing libraries for the rural communities in Kenya, and we continue to do this for the benefit of the general community, and mostly the children. All right. Oh, they brought the arts right on time. As you can see, Strength of a Woman is the name of the other segment right now. It's a strong art, yes. Strong art right there. Yes, yes. All right, I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I'd like to get into, to take you back to your childhood. Did you grow up in an urban setting or a rural area? I grew up in Nairobi, Bari. I grew up in a place called Njiro. It's not very far from here. Yes, I know the place. Yes, so, but we were a very humble family. My parents did business here and there, so we weren't rich. We weren't poor. We never slept hungry, but we were not rich. We just made it through life. And my academic journey was very, very difficult. Getting from primary school to high school. I actually didn't go through high school, the normal way, the 844 system. I just found my way in a Gumbaru school and that is why the Maktava Machinani project is a very personal project to me. When you say you didn't go to high school the normal way, what does that mean? What it means is that after my primary school, my parents couldn't afford to take me to high school. So I was out, they were done. For them they were done because they couldn't afford it. So I started doing manual jobs. I was actually a householder for like one and a half years. How old were you? I was a teenager. When you were a householder? Yes, I was a teenager. So, but the whole... Was your boss treating you well? Oh, they were like family to me. They were really, really good to me. They are still my friends to date. So I was there for one and a half year, but the whole point of doing that was to save and go back to high school. I'm trying to imagine myself immediately after high school, primary school, doing a job and saving up to go back to school. School was always forced on me as a kid. But where did you get this passion for education from? First of all, I was a very bright kid in school. But you don't say. The good thing is you don't say. I don't say. Yes, so I really wanted to be in school. I wanted to be a doctor, a medical doctor. But honestly, I couldn't handle it. Even when I got the opportunity to do that, I couldn't. I know I don't have the heart to handle. Blood. Exactly blood. So I switched to ICT and did computer technology in school. Yes. So from being a householder, going back to high school, graduating high school, getting a good enough grade to go to campus to study ICT, that is a struggle right there. Yeah. So what would happen when I was a householder? I wouldn't do a lot of television like most householders do. Then this family had had had some high schoolers in the house. So I would use their books to read. I used to read on my own. I would read anything that I would come across. So then it got to a point I realized I would never save enough to put on a uniform and go to school in the morning and leave school in the evening and still be able to pay my bills. So I quit the job after some time. And I started doing other manual work. I weighed on tables. I worked some manual jobs. And then I found the adult education classes in Samoan, Thika. So I enrolled in that. So I used to do at least three hours of class. Were you paying for this? Yes, I was paying for that. So it was easier to go to work throughout the day. Then by that time I was working in a small bookshop in Jujja. So Jujja has been home for a long time. So hi, people from Jujja. What was Jujja? So you're working in a bookshop. So this gives you access to books as well? Actually, they were just exercise books. It wasn't a bookshop for textbooks and stuff like that. It was a bookshop for exercise books and printing services How old are your classmates at this time? Oh, they were old people. You're the youngest of the class. Yes, but it was so fun. It was so fun. It was really, really fun. I was always top of the class, helping them with their homeworks. Sometimes it's not that they can't read. It's just that they can't see. Oh, it just caught up with them. So I'm trying to imagine you're in a class with no competition whatsoever. How did you manage to understand the level you are at? Because when there's no competition, you can never gauge yourself. Or you can never gauge yourself fairly, for lack of a better word. Well, you don't gauge yourself with who is sitting next to you in that kind of situation. You gauge yourself with the results you get at the end of your test. So that was quite promising. And at the end of it, I got a B minus. And that is I got into campus. But I did that for... I was in those classes for about two years. All right. So this actually made you realize something as a grown-up? Yeah. Is this the drive? Is this what drove you to start up a MacTaba machine learning? Oh, yeah. So now, being that I grew up in Nairobi, there was a problem accessing books, because I really wanted to read. So what I would get, you know, is a few books that I would get in the house. And when I was working as a household, is the books that those kids would leave behind when they go, when they go back to school. There were no libraries. There was really no access to it. And this is a very exposed area. It's a very exposed community. It's not like a machine learning where you have to, you know. Walk along this is still access in the school. This is a very exposed community. So with time I started, I have relatives in Mashambani. And I started realizing, you know, it's a serious struggle out there. This could happen to you in Nairobi. So what about? What about out there? The village, yeah. Exactly. So and then I have my awesome grandmother, who is raising some cousins. So sometimes we talk and she would mention, you know, your cousins need this and that. And then I would wonder, fine. At least in our family, we have people who can provide for these cousins. What about the next family? You know, there are some families in the rural communities where you were born there, you grew up there, you go to school there, you get married there and you bring up your family there. As in everything is just there. So there's no network outside that place? Yes, they don't have a relative in Nairobi or outside that place that can help them. You know, people assume that Nairobi, there's money, there's money in Nairobi and stuff like that. So if you have a relative in Nairobi, you're fitting. Which is not always the case. It is not. Hey, Shambalamoyabos. So I kept wondering, at least for my cousins, they have me, they have my relatives, my other relatives in Nairobi. But what about the next family that has no one? What happens to them? So why not give each of these kids the same opportunity to access books? Maktaba Mashinani's birth or was birthed in 2018. Yes. So maybe you can tell us what you're into, what is the structure, what do you guys do as Maktaba Mashinani? The goal of Maktaba Mashinani is to build and establish modern libraries for the rural communities. However, there are communities that are in so much need that they can't wait for a library. So we do book donations. We've been doing a lot of book donations and helping schools have their own small libraries in one way or another. So last year, 2019, in 2018, we so much concentrated on having structures in the organization, doing feasibility studies, knowing where the need is, what we can do best. So 2019, we were out there now doing the work. So we helped 165 schools establish their own small libraries. And then... In different countries? Different counties. Different counties in Kenya. And then we established one community library in Transmara. Yes. All right, so books have been donated. Libraries have been established. And there's something I'd like to know. You mentioned modern. Your goal is to establish modern libraries for the rural communities. Define modern in this case? Modern. We don't just want to have rooms with shelves and books. We realize that in Masinani, people are not exposed to technology or even basic computer skills. One computer is shared by 150 students or rather, yeah, in a good school, 150 students. Most teachers have never had an interaction with computers. They are trained teachers. They've never had interaction with computers so they can't even teach even if you give them the computer. And we want to appreciate the government for the computer projects. But you find that in some of these counties, those laptops can't really be used because even the teacher doesn't have the know-how. There's no skill. Exactly, there is no skill. So it's to some areas, it's a half-baked project. Yes. So we can do better. We can do better. All right. The whole point is to have, to introduce these communities to the world out here, to computer skills, to technology, to basic, we've partnered with some organization who will help us introduce basic programming for kids. There are some simple programming languages. So these will help kids come up with things like small games they can use and even, you know, put on app stores. Yes. So programming is the future, actually. Or ICT is the future of the world right now. It's the current and the future. So kids need an opportunity in this four-fact. Yes. All right, so modern libraries, I'd like to take you back to 2018 when you were doing the feasibility studies. All right, so you traveled across counties. All right, you can mention about a few counties that you managed to visit while doing this study. Okay, we've been to Meru. We've been to Nyandaro. We've done a lot of work in Nyandaro thanks to the national government and the county government there. We've been to Kisumu, we've been to Vihiga, we've also done some work in Nairobi. There are some places in Nairobi that are so much affected. We've done some work and we've also gone to Malindi. Yes. All right, is there any county? I won't ask about a county that is doing bad because I know a lot of counties are doing bad when it comes to education. Do you think there's a county that you visited that is doing good? That you can say, all right, these people don't need help? No, I wouldn't confidently say that. There is so much to be done out there, especially in education. The books we give are complementary books. The government is doing a good job giving out the syllabus books that are required. Well, we give our syllabus books that complement what the government is giving, but there is still a lot of need. I know the government is trying to tackle the whole issue of the book share ratio because you find in some situations, schools have been having a book share ratio of one to nine and the government is trying to counter that and we appreciate that very much, but there is no single county that has a good, perfect system academically. They all need improvement and it's a good thing that we have the current system. We hope that it improves the lives of children. There is a big need for education and better structures and we hope the ministry keeps up a good work. I like, so we have public schools. I've been to public schools that are really good. The book share ratio is amazing. Every kid has a desk. The teacher to student ratio is good. I've been to very good public schools and most of them happen to be in urban areas. All right, so what is the difference? Since they're all public schools, why is this one good and why is this one bad? What are some of the circumstances that lead to certain public schools not having the required resources? First of all, my own opinion is that people need to know that they have a voice and most machinani people don't know they have a voice. They have rights to good education so they never demand for it. But there are places where people can go and complain that there is no way my kid will be sitting on a stone and I'm paying taxes. But then there are other areas like they have been photo circulating on the internet of little kids sitting on bricks. With no books, just listening to a teacher. Exactly, just listening to a teacher and that is very sad. And this kid will go home to a parent who feels like the government is already doing them a favor by giving them those bricks to sit on. So people need to have voice. So awareness is number one? Yes, yes, they need, and also want to call on the leaders from different parts of this country. Let the governments work together. The county government is not in competition with the national government because when they compete, they, when Jico suffers. So let them come together and work for them, for the people who brought them to these offices. So there should be synchrony. The national government and the county governments should be working together when it comes to bettering education. What about the non-profit organizations? Do you think they're given enough or good space to contribute to this or play their role? There has been good work from non-government organizations. We don't want to deny that. However, there is still so much more to be done. So these are opportunities that, especially the county governments, can open up for investors to come in and invest in their counties, for investors to come in and invest in some dockets, specific dockets, that is for the county governments to map out. However, we want to appreciate the organizations like us, like Maktavo Machinani, who are going out there just helping kids whether, you know, people are helping or rather some government organizations are helping or not. Yes. All right, so I'd like to know when it comes to projects like these ones, most of the times it's a one-time project, let's say it's a donation of books, it's going to be a one-time project, then you forget it. But when it comes to what you're trying to do, there's a lot of creating and maintenance, because you have to go back in continuity. So how do you manage to do all this? First of all, let me give a scenario of the two cases. We have, like now we've been preparing for an event, for a donation, a huge donation event. We've been calling it Love for Nakoro. We are donating books to 56 schools in Nakoro County from all over Nakoro. Now on this, this is a donation event. So we've worked with different organizations, some of them non-governmental, like The Lounge Club, where they come and they help. As much as we are donating books, they'll come and help with a free eye checkup. We have, you know, Aqua Mist Water, they will come and help. A book is only as good as your eyesight, yeah. Exactly, exactly, exactly. We will have other people who come and say, we will assist with this particular thing, like Water for the event, who we have people that we are working with. So there are a lot of partnerships? Yes. And you're inviting more partnerships? We are inviting more partnerships. All right. We can do this alone. You can do this alone for sure. We cannot do this alone. All right, I'll give you an opportunity to invite partners towards the end. But I'm interested in this event that you have on Saturday, which is a very good cause right there. Maybe you can share it with the people right there. So this Saturday we are partnering with Miss Africa Elite to take books to kids with cancer, in the cancer wards of Kenyatta National Hospital. Sometimes kids are taken there and they are there for a very long time. And for this very long time, they don't have access to books and reading materials. So Maktaba Machinani is coming in to help them, you know, work around having books, drawing books and stuff like that. Just something that will keep them engaged when they are still there. And open their minds as well. Yes, yes. So when we are still planning about it, it will happen on Saturday from 10 a.m., we need help with the event. We still need help with the event. So we need little things, like even a cake if you can bake a cake, an eggless cake that is, because that is friendly for kids with cancer, doctor's recommendation. All right, eggless cakes are good for kids with cancer. Yes, yes, yes. I learn a lot on why in the morning. Thank you very much for the information right there. All right, so this is the poster for Love for Nakuru. This is a different functional together from the Saturday one. Maybe we can finish on the Saturday one and then we'll get into this. All right, so Kenyatta National Hospital, what time is this? It is at 10 a.m. We have other organizations that are coming on board to provide different things, but it's an initiative that has been organized by the Miss Africa Elite. All right. Together with Bakutaba Machinani Foundation. Kenyatta National Hospital is a hospital, from the title, by definition. You don't just walk into Kenyatta. So how can people be a part of this thing that children do? One, we are fundraising for it. So you can donate anything, financial donation to 891-300, and the account name is Maktaba. All right. Yes, and all the funds will be directed towards that. Just rewind back, rewind and come back again, select her with that one. Okay, the pay bill number for supporting us is 891-300, that is the pay bill number, and the account name is Maktaba. All right, what if we have cakes, clothes, fruits, nyanya, apples. Now, especially because... What do we do when it gets to that? Because we need cakes, we need a few other things. We need refreshments for the kids and little things to chew on. If you have anything, you can donate something that needs to be picked up. You can give us a call. You can call us on 07-1015...