The Book Bunk

We build libraries.

Hello Bunkers! This latest episode marks our final podcast episode for this season! We are grateful to have many of you tuning in as we embarked on a journey unearthing #NRBLibraries, our country's history and the future of public spaces. We promised a delightful episode and today we present to you our final episode featuring a Q&A with you, our listeners.

Link: https://bit.ly/APFTP

For now, we bid you adieu until the next season of A Palace For The People. 🙌

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A Palace For The People, lovingly crafted in Nairobi is an 8-part podcast series unearthing pieces of Nairobi’s history that support and feed the restoration process of the McMillan Memorial Library and its branches in Makadara and Kaloleni. #NRBLibraries

If you haven't yet, listen to previous episodes of the podcast on our website here: http://bit.ly/APFTP

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The Book Bunk

With the physical restoration of the Kaloleni Library completed in June 2020, we would like this library to meet the needs of its users, who are mainly children. We are receiving donations for learning resources i.e. stationery such as: a whiteboard, heavy duty printer or copier or scanner and board games. Send an email to sahar@bookbunk.org OR donate here: https://bit.ly/BunkDonate
You can also tag your fave brands that we can contact about providing these items. #NRBLibraries

📸 Credits: by Quaint Photography
📍 Kaloleni Branch, McMillan Memorial Library

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Architectural restoration of the Kaloleni branch was completed in June 2020. We are thankful to have been able to provide jobs for 28 Kaloleni residents through this project. Many thanks to our incredible partners; Dubai Cares, International Publishers Association and National BANK KENYA for seeing us and Kaloleni residents to this milestone!!! 🙏🏾

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The Book Bunk

Check out the revamped kitchen at the Eastlands Library in Makadara, what an upgrade! The revamped kitchen will serve as a great break room for library staff and also double up as a food station for events hosted at the library. To complete the transformation of this space into a fully functional kitchen for our library staff and users, we are receiving donations for kitchen items such as; a fridge, water dispensers, kitchen utensils among others.

To donate, send an email to sahar@bookbunk.org or donate here:
https://bit.ly/BunkDonate
You can also tag your fave brands that we can contact about providing these items. With love from the bunk ❤️!

📸 Credits: by Quaint Photography
📍 Eastlands Library in Makadara, McMillan Memorial Library

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The Eastlands Library in Makadara is located in Maringo Estate and is a stone throw away from the law courts and county offices, and now shares a compound with the Huduma Centre, a public service hub. Before pandemic-mandated closure earlier last year, this branch got the most foot traffic of all three; an average of 182 users a day, mainly young adults who were either using the space to study or were working from their own devices. We intend for this space to reflect the needs of its users: modern, inclusive spaces of learning and art. We are grateful for support from Sharjah World Book Capital, who are making these restoration efforts of #NRBLibraries possible!

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The Book Bunk

Restoring #NRBLibraries has been a process of lovingly imagining these spaces as functional and reflecting the social and cultural changes of the city. Several renders later, we have completed the first phase of the physical restoration. Shout out to the LYNK team for coming through with the repairs, fixes, paint work and restoration of this iconic library. We did this! 💪🏾

📸 Credits: by Quaint Photography
📍 Eastlands Library in Makadara, McMillan Memorial Library

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The Eastlands Library in Makadara is located in Maringo Estate and is a stone throw away from the law courts and county offices, and now shares a compound with the Huduma Centre, a public service hub. Before pandemic-mandated closure earlier last year, this branch got the most foot traffic of all three; an average of 182 users a day, mainly young adults who were either using the space to study or were working from their own devices. We intend for this space to reflect the needs of its users: modern, inclusive spaces of learning and art. We are grateful for support from Sharjah World Book Capital , who are making these restoration efforts of #NRBLibraries possible!

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The Book Bunk

Hello Bunkers! We made a neat list of items needed for the Eastlands Library in Makadara. Most users here are teens and young adults, and previous sessions with users identified revamped aesthetics as a fave desire for this branch. Please go ahead and tag your brands that we can contact about providing these items. Individual donations are also very welcome!

Want to support this restoration with a donation? Drop us a DM or reach out to sahar@bookbunk.org. You can also visit our website: www.bookbunk.org/donate

With love from the bunk ❤️!

#NRBLibraries

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The Eastlands Library in Makadara is located in Maringo Estate and is a stone throw away from the law courts and county offices, and now shares a compound with the Huduma Centre, a public service hub. Before pandemic-mandated closure earlier last year, this branch got the most foot traffic of all three; an average of 182 users a day, mainly young adults who were either using the space to study or were working from their own devices. We intend for this space to reflect the needs of its users: modern, inclusive spaces of learning and art. We are grateful for support from Sharjah World Book Capital , who are making these restoration efforts of #NRBLibraries possible!

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The Book Bunk

When we began the physical restoration of the Eastlands Library in Makadara we discovered sections of the library’s walls were made from asbestos. Exposure to asbestos can be dangerous and so we worked quickly to get the relevant permissions from Nema Kenya to safely remove this material. We’ve since gotten creative with the space and library users will now have additional spaces to work, chill, read and stare at the world outside without fear of exposure. Peep these new reading spots, which we hope are great spaces for imaginative work! #NRBLibraries

📸 Credits: by Quaint Photography
📍 Eastlands Library, Makadara.

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The Eastlands Library in Makadara is located in Maringo Estate and is a stone throw away from the law courts and county offices, and now shares a compound with the Huduma Centre, a public service hub. Before pandemic-mandated closure earlier last year, this branch got the most foot traffic of all three; an average of 182 users a day, mainly young adults who were either using the space to study or were working from their own devices. We intend for this space to reflect the needs of its users: modern, inclusive spaces of learning and art. We are grateful for support from Sharjah World Book Capital, who are making these restoration efforts of #NRBLibraries possible!

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About Green Bunk

Green Bunk is Book Bunk’s mitigation response to the effects of Climate Change. Through this programmatic strand, we seek to deliver a series of interventions for the communal benefit of library users and Nairobi residents at large. This programme sits within our larger goal to convert these crucial public spaces into inclusive ones that nurture the pursuit of knowledge.

Environmental conservation in Kenya is still for the most part viewed as the preserve of activists and conservationists. This programme will attempt to address this dichotomy through eco-education programmes and initiatives including waste reduction hacks, resource conservation and recycling tips to demonstrate how practicing sustainability can lead to reduced household expenditure. A key part of this programme is the installation & maintenance of community gardens in each of the library spaces and, through partnerships, the broad utilisation of these spaces to pilot practices that users can implement in their homesteads as well as generate income from.

Impact

We hope to achieve the following impact through the Green Bunk programme;

Plant a Book Bunk offset forest each year
Increased eco-friendly and recycling habits are evident in the library community
Create cleaner and greener communities around the library first, and elsewhere later
Develop a curriculum for eco-education programming that can be replicated and rolled out at all three library branches

Growth

Our long-term goals include;

Community gardens are fully managed by library users
Recycling becomes the norm in our library community, measured by frequency of trash collections.
Green Bunk nurtures a crop of eco-warriors and facilitates the expansion of the programmes via these individuals, essentially graduates of our programmes.
Green Bunk begins to provide economic opportunities for its graduates through skills acquisition
Plastics up-cycling program
In the long term, develop and pilot a curriculum for eco-education programming that can be replicated as needed and delivered annually at the library.

SUPPORT: Book Bunk is seeking in-kind and fiscal partnerships to support the establishment and operation of Green Bunk. To get involved, please contact Sahar McTough at sahar@bookbunk.org