F
Friends and family of Books & Beyond
Books
The project
This library is open
HGM Kathonzweni Primary School is the first school in the Books & Beyond programme. Its library was fully renovated, stocked, and handed over to the school community in February 2026 — marking a historic milestone for child-led literacy in rural Kenya.
Project at a glance
350
Learners at the school
—
Books donated
Being counted
Kathonzweni
Makueni County, Kenya
Complete
Library opened
The journey
The Kathonzweni HGM Primary School journey
Every project moves through the same seven steps. Here is where this one has got to.
Complete — all 7 steps done
- The school asked — done
- We worked out what was needed — done
- Raising the money — done
- Collecting the books — done
- Building the library — done
- The doors opened — done
- Handed over to the school — done
What happened, and when
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Date not recorded
The school asked
- A family visit to Kathonzweni HGM It started with a family visit. 350 learners, no library at all. Surina and Keisha asked where a child here goes to read something they chose. Nobody had an answer.
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Date not recorded
We worked out what was needed
- A second visit, and a written proposal We went back and looked properly. The room was a classroom: bare walls, no shelves, no reading furniture, no light to sit under. The school had the space, never the means.
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Date not recorded
Raising the money
- Funded entirely by a generous family The generosity of one single family helped us get the project started
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Date not recorded
Collecting the books
- Books donated, sorted and levelled before shipping Books came from families, schools and donors. We received surprisingly so many books. Surina and Keisha, and the larger Books And Beyond team, painstakingly sorted one after the other.
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Date not recorded
Building the library
- Room repaired, painted, floored and shelved The room was repaired, painted, floored and fitted with shelves. Almost all the work was done by people who live in Kathonzweni. Those who built it have children who now use it.
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Date not recorded
The doors opened
- Official opening, covered in the national press The library opened with the whole school there. Surina and Keisha spoke, and so did the head teacher. The national press carried the story. A rural school was seen, publicly.
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Date not recorded
Handed over to the school
- The school now runs the library itsel Books & Beyond does not run this library. Kathonzweni HGM does. The register, the shelves, the repairs are theirs. A library that needs us to keep turning up is not finished.
What changed
The Transformation
Drag the handle to see the same room before and after.
Interior prior to Books And Beyond Interior after to Books And Beyond
While it was being built
Most of this work was done by people who live nearby.
Where it stands now
The library is open and in use every school day. Learners borrow books, return them, and take turns running the desk. The school runs it now. The register, the shelves, the repairs, the reading timetable — all of it sits with Kathonzweni HGM, which was always the point. Books & Beyond made the room. The school made it a library.
Kenya's curriculum
What the library means for learners here
Before the library, a CBC research task at Kathonzweni meant asking children to find something out with nothing to find it in. The curriculum expects inquiry. The school had textbooks and little else.
That has changed. Learners here can now look something up, follow an interest past the end of a lesson, and read about work they have never seen anyone do.
Each of them will choose a senior school pathway — STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts & Sports Science. That choice is still ahead of them. Which is exactly why the reading needs to start now.
Pathways this library supports:
🔬 STEM
🎨 Arts & Sports
How CBC shapes every library we build
Photos & Videos
7 items, in the order things happened
4 photos
3 videos
What the children say 3
Video
Students dreaming big
Video
Students getting inspired by the books they now have access to.
Video
Impact of the library on students
Around the school 4
Entry to Kathonzweni HGM
The HGM Kathonzweni library building
A wide view of HGM Kathonzweni Primary School's grounds
The school compound — open grounds, established trees, and classrooms stretching into the distance. A community with space, waiting for investment.
Documents & Reports
Library Donation Proposal
Formal proposal detailing library needs, student count, and sustainability plan.
Download Proposal (PDF)Who helped here
This library exists because these people said yes.
And everyone else
A library is not just books arriving. Every one of them had to be sorted, labelled and shelved, and the room had to be made fit to hold them. Here is who did that work.
- Surina and Keisha — sorted and catalogued every book before it reached a shelf
- The students of Kathonzweni HGM — made the book cards, working alongside Surina and Keisha
- Athanas — supervised the renovation of the library from start to finish
- Priya — organised the book drives and rallied the support that brought the books here