The first episode was with Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange of Book Bunk and the second with Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirikure. You can watch them below or listen to them here.
Kenyan library restoration project Book Bunk was assigned $50,000, and Dubai Cares gave a further $10,000 one-off donation for children’s books to stock the library. Book Bunk’s mission is to restore the historical McMillan Memorial Library, in Nairobi, working with city authorities to encourage community engagement in libraries. After several years of researching, planning, lobbying, and implementing, the team has transformed the dilapidated buildings and their obsolete, colonial-era book collections into fresh, user-friendly incubators of knowledge, community cohesion, and cultural autonomy.
Celebrated Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirikure has built a modern community library in Zimbabwe’s Nemashakwe area, Gutu district, to offer 800 students and young people access to books, a place to study, and programs to attain livelihood skills. Chirikure’s family is converting some of their buildings for the project. They are investing the APIF grant in computers, connectivity, solar installation, and a water borehole for the users of the resource center.
About APIF
In May 2019, the International Publishers Association and Dubai Cares had a vision to support publishers across the African continent.
The result was a courageous initiative called the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund- An $800,000 fund to support literacy, book access, indigenous publishing, and library restoration.
This podcast series features the dreamers and free-thinkers who have stepped up in the face of adversity. We’ll learn about their ambitious projects and a shared belief— that access to knowledge is an undeniable human right.
Learn more about the APIF by visiting https://www.apinnovation.fund
About Dubai Cares
We’d like to give special thanks to our project partner, Dubai Cares, who has been working towards providing children and youth in developing countries with access to quality education. To date, the UAE-based global philanthropic organization has successfully launched education programs reaching over 20 million beneficiaries in 60 developing countries.
To learn more, please visit www.dubaicares.ae