Teacher in Kenya Combating High Poverty and Low Learning Rates through the NABU Reading App

“ Read at Home, Read with Your Kid, and Read Yourself” - Esther Gacigi

Meet Esther Gacigi, a Second Grade Teacher at Kwa Njenga Primary School located in a low-income community in Nairobi, Kenya. As an educator, Esther has been grappling with the fact that a number of her learners are unable to read and write at their current level due to limited access to books.?

?Esther describes this concept as learning poverty. Learning poverty is a concept that highlights the inequality of the learning poor population and it helps us to fully understand children’s access to education. Esther, described the learning poverty level at Kwa Njenga Primary as high and since started a journey to identify ways to combat this problem.?

Esther was introduced to NABU by a friend who also uses the application and referred her to a NABU reading ambassador. Esther did not waste time and quickly downloaded the NABU app and read a number of the books.?

?“Ideally a learner should be able to read by age 10, if they are unable to do so then they are in a lot of trouble. Being introduced to the NABU App has been a blessing as my learners can now access Free books and read as many books as they want through the app”.?

Esther has adopted NABU in her teaching style and has been using it for storytelling time every Monday morning. She has gone a step further and introduced parents in her class to the NABU app through a WhatsApp group. Dubbed the Kwa Njenga book drive, Esther has been leading efforts to build a reading culture and promote parental involvement in everyday reading.?

“At first I had a challenge as the parents did not understand the download process but as time went by, I was able to guide them through it and now they are the ones recruiting more people to download the app”, She added.?

?“NABU books being in both Swahili and English is great. My learners are more confident now to read the same story in English as they are while reading in Swahili, which comes naturally to them.” Esther said.?

?Esther's advice to parents: "Read at Home, Read with Your Kid, and Read Yourself." You can watch Esther’s full story here.

At NABU, we celebrate Esther as a Literacy Champion as she helps develop the next generation of readers. Help us spread Esther’s message Donate today!

We love to hear user stories from our readers like this one! Are you also using the NABU app to help your child to read? Send us your reading success story at [email protected].?

Did you know that every NABU book you buy, helps us eradicate illiteracy by 2030? Buy a book!