The Youth Cafe Library Program
“I feel the need of reading, it is a loss to a man not to have grown up among books”
Abraham Lincoln
We at The Youth Cafe recognize that information is a basic commodity in everyone’s life, and we want to make sure that the services we provide are responsive to your needs and will translate to both individual and community empowerment. We want to provide these services to your satisfaction and take pride in the contribution that we will have made to your individual and national development, general well-being, and the economic growth of Africa. This program serves as a commitment that TYC intends to live up to its mandate.
The future belongs to a young person who reads. The culture of reading should be introduced to African children as early as 5 to 6 years of age. This sets down what TYC is and what it does, and its commitment to providing young people and communities with the highest quality and accessible services that the available resources will allow. TYC Library is a corporate body of The Youth Cafe that was established by TYC’s Education department to provide library and information services to young people.
Illiteracy rates in Africa
Research shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest literacy rate, with an illiteracy rate of 15 years and above at 34%. This is the percentage of the population that is not able to read and write. As an organization, we are incentivizing young people to embrace reading as we promote Sustainable Development Goal number 4 which is “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
What it is
The Youth Cafe library program is a reading program introduced by The Youth Cafe Organization which is located in Kitisuru gardens, Nairobi, Kenya. The reading program allows youths to come to the organization to read books and they can also borrow books for a deposit which will be given back when they return the book. In addition to the mainstream library services, TYC offers outreach programs targeted at those who are not able to access the libraries due to distance or other impediments. These include:
Mobile Library services
Braille services to institutions dealing with visually impaired persons
Service to prisons and hospitals
Book box service to schools
How it works
The Youth Cafe Library Program targets young people with the desire and push to read, get knowledge, and to create their own knowledge. It allows any young person from the ages of 13 to 35 years to access the organization’s books through membership registration where they are issued with a membership card that allows them to access books online, physically and to join a book club that is a forum where they discuss books they have read.