We’re almost ready to start building! Donate now to help build a fully equipped, modern library in Busia, Kenya!
We’ve got the land, we’ve got the architect, now we need the funds! Please support putting up the structure in Busia, Kenya by donating what you can. Your pennies go a long way in Kenya.
Become a sustaining member $1- $499
Become an institutional member $500 and over
Send your old business textbooks to the Busia Community Library!
There are an increasing number of university students in Busia as campuses are erected and ad-hoc courses crop up. The existing library in Busia is being inundated with students looking for a quiet place to study! They have been asking for university-level books. So Business School graduates! Old textbooks may be sent directly to the library in Busia. They hope in particular for books in business and cost accounting, financial management, business statistics, risk, insurance, organizational theory and analysis, information technology, computer programming, and marketing. You can mail them directly to:
Busia Community Library
P.O. Box 234
Busia, Kenya
Medical texts requested!
General and specialized. We've received the below specific requests, but if you have something similar please send it along.
Gray's Anatomy (Suzan Standring); Human Anatomy and Physiology (Elaine N. Marieb); Textbook of Medical Physiology (Arthur C. Guyton); The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home Edition; Nursing Care of the Childbearing Family (Sherwen, Scoloveno, Weingarten); Medical Surgical Nursing-Concepts and Clinical Practice (Phillip, Long, Woods); Pediatric Nursing-Caring for the Children (Ball and Bindler); Psychiatric Nursing-In the Hospital and the Community (Burgess); Pharmacologic Basis of Nursing Practice (Clark, Queener, Karb); Pharmacology and the Nursing Process (Linda Lilley and Robert Aucker); Clinical Nursing Skills-Basic to Advanced Skills (Smith, Duell, Martin);First Aid and CPR (The National Safety Council); First Aid Manual (St.Andrew's Ambulance and British Red Cross); Principle of Ambulatory Medicine (Barker, Burton, Zieve); Adolescent Psychiatry (Feinstein, Morohn, Esman, Loonry...); Clinical Practice for the Dental Hygienist (Wilkins); Handbook of Pediatric Dentistry (Cameron, Widmer); Pediatric Dermatology and Dermatopathology (Caputo, Ackerman, Siso-Torre); Hypertension, An Incredibly Easy Miniguide (Springhouse); Congestive Heart Failure, What you Should Know (Keraiakes and Wetherill); Handbook of Emergency Cardiovascular Care (The American Heart Association); High Blood Pressure-Black Man & Woman's Guide To Living With Hypertension; Endocrinology (DeGroot); Epilepsy (Middleton, Attwell and Walsh); Health and Healing The Natural Way-Managing Pain (Readers' Digest); Public Health And Human Ecology (John M. Last); Primary Care For Women (Leppert and Howard); Understanding Health Insurance, A Guide to Professional Billing (Rowell); Clinical Evidence (United Health Foundation); Where Women Have No Doctor (Burns, Lovich, Maxwell and Shaprio)
Get local content into the library! Buy directly from Kenyan publishers!
Friends of Maria's Libraries have been generous in donating books. However, we need to get local content into this library as well. Maria's Libraries is partnering with local publishers so that you can buy books directly from the publisher to be sent to the Busia Community Library. You'll be supporting Kenyan writers and supplying the library with local content-- what a beautiful bang for your buck! Check out our partner StoryMoja. To browse their collection and buy a book, click on their logo below, and have the book sent to Maria's Libraries, Box 234 Busia, 5400 Kenya.
Maria’s Libraries has also established a partnership with Kwani Trust, a literary organization that publishes edgy, modern, and distinctly Kenyan voices. Come to our July 10th harambee at the Makini School to see poetry, spoken-word, and musical performances by some of their artists
and to have an opportunity to view and purchase their books, also viewable online here. If
you would like to purchase Kwani Trust publications for Maria’s Libraries' partners, hit our “Donate” button on the left and be sure to include a message in the “notes to seller” section that you are designating your donation for books purchased from Kwani Trust We will
work with the Trust to purchase their books up to the amount you donate, however please feel free to specify which books you would prefer to purchase. All books will go to the Busia Community Library, and duplicates will go to Kenya National Library Services for distribution to public libraries elsewhere in Kenya.
Getting a new camera or laptop? Give us your old ones! Need some space on those shelves? Donate books!
The Busia library can use as many computers as it can get. As for a camera, each library may only need one, but can use the others for prizes in contests for kids, which raises awareness and excitement about the library and promotes the arts. We will bring them to Kenya and personally deliver them to the library. Contributions may be mailed to the addresses above, or emails us on contact@mariaslibraries.org to schedule a pick-up.
Going to Kenya? Bring books!
People have been very generous in donating quality books in the US. What has been more difficult, however, has been getting the books to Kenya. Mailing them internationally is costly, there are often arbitrary fees to pick them up from the Post Office in Kenya, and sometimes they do not arrive at all. The internal postal system in Kenya is much less expensive and more reliable—if you are going to Kenya, we’ll get you the books and tell you how to post them once you arrive in Nairobi.
Maria's Libraries is a registered 501(c)3 organization and all contributions are tax deductible.