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Over 1400 students from Kajiado Township Primary School will benefit from a newly renovated and well stocked library in the county.
Liberty Life Assurance Kenya and Heritage Insurance Wednesday opened the facility at the Kajiado Township Primary School in honor of Nelson Mandela Day.
The move is part of the two firms’ Corporate Social Investment strategy, which is focused on education and sharing knowledge as a way to meaningfully contribute to growth and socio-economic development in Kenya.
Speaking during the event, Liberty’s Managing Director, Mr. Abel Munda said Liberty’s focus on education as a way of changing the realities in the communities where they do business.
“Liberty in partnership with Oxford Publishers are proud to open this school library which will play a key role in promoting learning in the schools.
At the same time, the library will be a central place for nurture innovation, curiosity and problem solving. This Library will reflect the diversity, character and needs and expectations of Kajiado Township Primary school.
We believe that this is a step in the right direction towards providing quality education to promote lifelong opportunities for each student,” said Munda.
The two insurance companies, that are part of the Liberty Group, have over the years awarded partial and full scholarships to students and also sponsored school fees for students from disadvantaged families.
In line with Kenya’s Vision 2030 development plan and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), education has become vital in driving the development agenda of the country.
“Over the years Liberty has worked harder to do more for the community and the youth because we believe in empowering them to become self-sustainable role models and entrepreneurs,” said Munda.
Currently the book to student ratio in Kenya points a grim picture to the state of the country’s educational standards with 1 book for every 5 students with worse figures for community based school thus advancing an imbalanced system that skews socioeconomic progress to a few.
Albert Ngunjiri Director Health Insurance, Heritage reiterated that staff and agents of both companies generously contributed old books and money to purchase new books as part of their involvement in providing access to books to the school.
“The primary driver of illiteracy at many schools is the lack of access to books. For the majority of households in these communities, books are not a priority item.
It is expected that books will be provided by the educational institution and when that does not happen, the level of literacy, numeracy and educational attainment drops significantly,” noted Albert Ngunjiri Director Health Insurance, Heritage
Liberty’s efforts were inspired by their mission to enable informed communities by promoting knowledge and sharing values.
The investment in Kajiado Township Primary School is in line with the insurer’s commitment to improve lives of disadvantaged communities by democratizing knowledge.