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"Draw your ideas with those letters."  ~Hiba, age 16

Nurturing Young Writers

We provide a platform for young people to tell their own stories — whether it's essays about their personal lives, creative short stories, or oral tales inherited from their elders. In the rural communities where we collaborate, young people are so rarely heard from. This program amplifies and elevates these unheard voices. When students can express themselves, their confidence, bravery, and mind blossom; and we've seen it happen. As Oliveseed Press, we publish student anthologies in printed books and in digital form to share freely with the world.

"From reading to writing" This is a natural evolution of our library programs. And the beauty of having a library is that there's a place to put these books, where they will be shared by many and inspire more to write stories of their own.

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"It became a matter of survival for all of us"

During Covid, students in the Maasai Mara were sequestered at home for 8 months, many in earthen homes without power or light. When they returned to school, we invited students to write about their time at home, published a collection of their essays, and held an event in 2022 to honor them.

Linda, age 13 from Aitong Primary School, being interviewed on national television (Citizen TV) at our Student Voices from Kenya event

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"All the things that you feel"

"What I’m going to say to all the people who want to write something and they still feel confused, just draw your ideas with those letters, because all that matters is that you put yourself in that text, and you put all the things that you feel and that you think about in those lines. So, what I’m going to say is, just keep writing and do whatever you want, because love and passion is all what makes us happy and proud of ourselves."

~ Hiba Bakertit, who placed 1st in our 2020 MLP Short Story Competition for her story told from the perspective of a boy with autism

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