Northern Voice Trust

Northern Voice Trust is a literary organization fostering reading, writing, and creative expression in Northern Kenya. Our aim is to close the literacy gap and unlock the imagination power of children.

Our Programs Get Involved

Our Mission

To empower children and communities of Northern Kenya through literary expressions, promoting literacy and education as fundamental tools for personal and societal development. We strive to provide access to quality education through distribution of relevant storybooks, foster a love of life-long learning, and create opportunities for sustainable growth.

Our Vision

To build a future where every child in Northern Kenya has the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to thrive, unlocking the full potential of the society. We envision a community where literacy is the foundation for social, economic, and cultural transformation.

Our Values

Inclusion

We are committed to creating accessible and equitable literacy experiences for all children, regardless of their background or circumstances. We celebrate diversity and ensure that every voice is heard and valued.

Community

We believe that literacy is a shared responsibility. We work hand-in-hand with families, schools, and local partners to build supportive environments that foster a love for reading from an early age.

Collaboration

Strong partnerships are essential to our mission. We collaborate with educators, volunteers, and community leaders to amplify our impact and reach more children with literacy opportunities.

Empowerment

We empower children to see themselves as readers, learners, and thinkers. Through culturally appropriate materials and engaging programs, we inspire confidence and agency in every child we serve.

Our Story

Northern Voice Trust is a literary organization registered as a trust in Kenya which began with a belief in the power of books. Our aim is to foster reading, writing, and creative expression in Northern Kenya. A commitment to education, learning and development in Africa.

Our resolve is to close the literacy gap, and to unlock the imagination power of children through putting a book in a child's hand.

The founder, Sahara Abdi, an author and a reader herself grew up in a home surrounded by books, and knows first hand the infinite possibilities books open up in the life of a child. It is for this reason she founded Northern Voice Trust to change the narrative in her home, and use her knowledge as well as influence to inspire as many writers and readers from Northern Kenya, a region that is often misrepresented, and whose story is often told by others.

Word from the Founder

Dreaming of Books for Every Child: A Literacy Movement Begins.

There's nothing quite like the power of a book to open up worlds, ignite imaginations, and shape futures.Yet, far too many children still don't have access to the books they need to grow, learn, and dream. That's why I've embarked on the journey of starting a literacy organization — one that is driven by the belief that every child deserves access to books and the opportunity to develop the skills that will unlock their potential.This is a dream that’s bigger than just reading words on a page. It's about creating an ecosystem where literacy is a bridge to equality, empowerment, and opportunity. It's about building a world where children, no matter where they come from or their circumstances, can pick up a book and discover the endless possibilities that lie within.

As we kick off this journey, I'm focused on three key things:

Access to Books: It is not enough to just talk about literacy; we need to deliver books to children who need them the most. The children of Northern Kenya. Whether through book donations, community libraries, or digital resources, our goal is to make sure that every child has the resources to learn.

Building a Love for Reading: Literacy isn't just about reading; it's about fostering a love for reading. By creating engaging programs, storytelling sessions, and interactive events, we aim to inspire children to see books as their best friends.

Empowering Communities: It is not just about the child, but the community that surrounds them. We are committed to working with schools, parents, and local organizations to make literacy a shared responsibility and a collective mission.

It's a big dream, but one that is possible through the support of passionate individuals, volunteers, and donors. Together, we can help make sure that no child is left behind when it comes to the fundamental right to learn and grow through books.Join us in this movement. Together, let’s dream of books for all children and turn that dream into a reality.

#LiteracyForAll #BooksForChildren #EmpowerThroughReading #DreamBigReadMore #UnlockPotential

Sahara Abdi

Founder, Northern Voice Trust

Our Programs

We run various programs aimed at promoting literacy and fostering a love for reading among children in Northern Kenya.

Project I Read

A one hour long read aloud program that we do with schools and encourage them to incorporate in their timetable to read with children from nursery to year 4.

Maktaba Vijijini

Equipping tiny libraries in the villages. We not only get them the books but build the capacity for them to embrace reading culture inculcated into the community, so it becomes a community project.

NVT Book Fair

We hosted the first ever book fair in the whole of Northern Kenya in Mandera in 2019 and 2020. Our plan is to establish annual book fairs in all the Northern Kenya counties.

Advocacy

We are committed to promote the importance of literacy and reading culture, and we advocate for that for all children of Africa.

Resources

Araweelo

The Araweelo of the myth was a tough countess who established a reign of women rulers which lasted for centuries. The Araweelo of this story is a tough child with courage in her roots.

Separated by time, the two share a vengeful land of sun and sand and people of eerie grits with impossible capacity for living in the unlivable.

The first storybook for children from Sheeko Sheeko series by Sahara Abdi.

My Brother With The Colourful Brain

My Brother With The Colourful Brain delves into the world of neurodiversity, and helps children understand it through the eyes of Pendo, who tries to understand her brother, Adam.

Neurodiversity is the idea that people are different, and how they interact with the world around them is different in many ways. There is no one way of thinking, behaving or learning. These differences for some may be a disability, and for others, it needs to be understood and accommodated. The word is often used in Autism Spectrum and other neurological development conditions.

They include; ADHD, Autism, dysphaxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and Tourette's. These are diagnostic words used to describe different ways of thinking, behaving, learning or processing.

A Boy Named Salah

A Boy Named Salah is a story of a ten years old boy, facing life with the right amount of Bedouin fortitude.

Sahara speaks to the soul of the young with her stories and this is a story for every village and borough of the Cushitic speaking nation.

These are books published by our founder. She believes that writing for children is a responsibility.

70% of the proceeds from the books run the activities of the organization.

The Team

Meet the dedicated individuals behind Northern Voice Trust who are passionate about promoting literacy in Northern Kenya.

Our Team

Sahara Abdi

Program Director

An author and reader who grew up surrounded by books and knows firsthand the infinite possibilities books open up in the life of a child.

Munira Hussein

Community Outreach

Coordinates daily operations and ensures our literacy programs are effectively implemented across Northern Kenya communities.

Miles Ncube Malaba

Research and Partnership

Leads research initiatives and impact assessment to measure the effectiveness of our literacy interventions.

Advisory Board

Distinguished experts who provide strategic guidance and support to our mission.

Dr. Hawa Noor Mohammed

Education Advisor

Hussein Tadicha Wario, PhD

Research Advisor

Dr. Samantha Balaton

International Development Advisor

Blog

Stories and insights from our journey to promote literacy in Northern Kenya.

I was introduced to books before I was introduced to school. I would flip the pages of books and feel lost in them. The earliest memory of my literacy that I recall was trying to pronounce the word firestone usually engraved on tires and try to read out. This was before I was formally taken to school, probably at the age of 5. To be honest, this was a privilege for a child born in Mandera then, and growing up there.

I used to be so much in love with reading that I would read anywhere, including walking by the road to and from school, under the scorching sun of Mandera, without a care to the damage the sun would do to my eyes, especially the reflection from the white pages against the sun. I was a curious child who even the sun wouldn't stop.

Books were the first friends I made in life. I still never go anywhere without a book, and I always seek comfort in stories. Stories shape us, who we are as people. Stories connect us and bond us as humans.

Reading to me has always been a passion, right from childhood. Books have impacted my life so much, and how I think about life. I read to see the world, and experience how others feel. Without a doubt, reading expands one's knowledge and world view.

As a child then, there was another challenge that I didn't think of as a challenge then, of course, because I was just a child. Most of the story books available to me were books that never had people like me in them. I recall that the only place in a book that I would encounter familiar names to me like Fatuma or Abdalla were in the school textbooks as they are always designed to give representation to cover the entire country's cultures. I used to get so happy and even underline the names when I saw them. I didn't know what that was, and what it meant until I became an author and wrote books that were meant to make the children of Northern Kenya know that they too can belong to books as characters, or on the covers of books. The joy it gave them affirmed to me that we have a need to give each child a representation in books. That their stories matter. Our stories as collectively as a community matter.

Going back to Mandera as an adult in 2018 armed with nothing but a resolve to help bring books to the lives of those children that were growing up in a place I did woke me up to the fact that nothing changed over those many years, and that the narrative was still the same, decades later.This is how I became a children's book writer. To write for those children because if I didn't no one else would. To write for my daughter and son so they know our ways, our stories, and they know that we belong.Writing for children to me then is not only writing for the sake, but a duty. A responsibility.Literacy plays a huge role in many people's lives. We experience it differently world over, and unfortunately, some children, less advantaged by circumstances beyond them never get to experience or if they do, it is by luck and not design.

Since books were and still are by far all I know best, and the most powerful aspect of my life, I chose to commit to use books as a tool to impact lives, especially for children whose narratives I understand too well. To use my skills, knowledge and power to only give it to children of Northern Kenya as a gift, but a right, because reading and writing are fundamentals of life not to be enjoyed by only a few, but all. A right for all.