World Book Day: Oxfordshire and Kenyan children raise funds for library with book

School children have marked World Book Day by writing a book that will raise funds towards a community library in West Kenya.

Cosmic Cats is an anthology of stories by students from St Swithun's Primary School in Kennington, Oxfordshire, and Kenya's Mumias Township Primary School.

The project is jointly lead by Abingdon based charity The Nasio Trust and Oxford author Sylvia Vetta.

The Kenyan students said the library would help them "gain more knowledge".

The Nasio Trust founder Nancy Mudenyo Hunt said a library at the rural county of Kakamega would be "life-changing" for the community

All proceeds from the sale of Cosmic Cats will go towards the library fundraiser.

Mrs Vetta said the idea behind the book was that children from both countries write about a subject they would be "happy with".

She suggested to her granddaughter Alexandra to write a story inspired by cats.

Copies of her story were then sent to Mumias Township Primary School is in Kakamega County in Kenya, where the students "absolutely came up with the challenge".

"And then the children here responded amazingly."

Author Sylvia Vetta said she had chosen a subject that children from both countries would be "happy with"

'Life-changing'

The Nasio Trust has been helping vulnerable children and communities in Kakamega for over 20 years.

Its founder Nancy Mudenyo Hunt grew up in a village called Musanda and walked 6km every day to get to Mumias School.

"The community we support has no access to books, computers or even a basic space where they can sit and read," she said.

Mrs Hunt said she felt that would be "life-changing" for them because they could improve their numeracy, literacy, and even read books by Kenyan authors.

Students from Mumias Township Primary School told the BBC the library would help them "develop basic skills", "gain more knowledge" and "spend leisure time reading stories".

Cosmic Cats was written just in time for World Book Day

Copies of the book can be purchased from The Nasio Trust website and at Mostly Books or The Book Store in Abingdon.

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