Kenya Keys established the Taru Community Library in 2009. Since that time, interns have provided part-time librarian services. We are thrilled to announce the hiring of a full-time librarian: Mwanaisha Mlanda Mwayama.

As a recent college graduate in education, a Kenya Keys alumni, and a Hope Springs facilitator, Mwanaisha is uniquely qualified to fulfill the mission of Kenya Keys to unlock potential in her community. Her hiring also represents an exciting step toward the vision of The Learning Center, slated to begin construction in 2022. Mwanaisha will manage the library and the computer lab integral to improving educational outcomes for our students. 

Schoolchildren stop by the Taru Community Library during lunch or after school and tell Mwanaisha about what they are reading.

“I am so happy,” Mwanaisha told founder Rinda Hayes. “The library was my passion.” 

It is a happy ending that was a long time coming. Mwanaisha grew up in a village so poor that very few people attended high school. She was the highest scoring girl in her primary school, but her widowed mother struggled to support a family of 7 children, and high school was not a possibility. Noting her potential, Kenya Keys committed to sponsoring her. Mwanaisha graduated high school in 2013. 

Unfortunately, her sponsor could not support her to college. While she waited, she taught as an assistant at Samburu Primary School and Taru Girls Secondary School. She taught the adult education class Kenya Keys ran in Taru, worked as an intern at the Kenya Keys Community Library, and helped out at the Kenya Keys office and the student conferences.

“Mwanaisha is a rare and gifted student,” Rinda observed in 2014. “She not only was the top girl from her school, but she is one of the top girls in the Kenya Keys program.”

Rinda was determined to find a sponsor for her college career.  In 2014, Mwanaisha entered Kibabii University with help from Kenya Keys and the government. 

There were bumps in the road and setbacks along the way, but Mwanaisha graduated this spring from Kibabii University with a degree in Education, Geography, and Business.

In 2020, when Kenya Keys first conceived the Hope Springs project for at-risk girls, staff immediately suggested Mwanaisha, knowing her to be compassionate, capable, intuitive, and a great advocate for students. “Mwanaisha gives the best advice,” one staffer observed. There is good reason for that.

“The same environment that they are in, the same things we were also in,” Mwanaisha explained when describing the Hope Springs girls. Asked to give advice to younger students, she said, “Hard work pays.”

Kenya Keys congratulates and welcomes Mwanaisha, and thanks to the Lewis Family Foundation and all of you for the support that makes happy endings like Mwanaisha’s, possible.