Promoting Literacy Among Youths

“I need reading; it is a loss to a man not to have grown up among books.”

Abraham Lincoln

We at The Youth Cafe recognize that information is essential to everyone’s life. We want to ensure that our services are responsive to your needs and will translate to individual and community empowerment. We want to provide these services to your satisfaction and take pride in the contribution that we will have made to your individual and national development, general well-being, and the economic growth of Africa. This program is a commitment that TYC intends to fulfil its mandate.

The future belongs to a young person who reads. The reading culture should be introduced to African children as early as 5 to 6 years of age. This sets down what TYC is, what it does, and its commitment to providing young people and communities with the highest quality and accessible services that available resources will allow. TYC Library is a corporate body of The Youth Cafe that TYC’s Education department established to provide library and information services to young people.

Illiteracy rates in Africa

Research shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest literacy rate, with an illiteracy rate of 15 years and above at 34%. This is the percentage of the population that cannot read and write. As an organization, we are incentivizing young people to embrace reading as we promote Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all”. 

What it is

The Youth Cafe library program is a reading program introduced by The Youth Cafe Organization, located in Kitisuru gardens, Nairobi, Kenya. The reading program allows youth to come to the organization to read books, and they can also borrow books for a deposit which will be given back when they return the book. In addition to the mainstream library services, TYC offers outreach programs targeted at those who cannot access the libraries due to distance or other impediments. These include:

• Mobile Library services

• Braille services to institutions dealing with visually impaired persons

• Service to prisons and hospitals

• Book box service to schools

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How it works

The Youth Cafe Library Program targets young people with the desire and push to read, get knowledge, and create their knowledge. It allows any young person from the ages of 13 to 35 years to access the organization’s books through membership registration, where they are issued with a membership card that allows them to access books online, physically and to join a book club that is a forum where they discuss books they have read.

Membership

TYC is committed to offering access to information and knowledge for empowerment. At TYC Library Program, our tagline, “Read Know Empower” tells of our desire to have knowledgeable and empowered people in the country. With a library membership card, you can access a world of books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, e-books, databases, online journals, public computers and many more that are yours to discover. A library card is one of the best assets you need to have to transform your life.

Library membership is open to institutions and individuals, both citizens and non-citizens.