Lift the Lid Partners with Darien Book Aid

Lenana Girls High School in Kitale, Kenya

Darien Book Aid (DBA) is a non-profit in Darien, Connecticut that promotes learning, acceptance, and friendship by distributing free books locally and around the globe. They have been in existence since 1949, relying on help from dedicated volunteers who sort, package, and ship box after box of books to eager recipients. Stepping inside their warehouse, inside Darien’s old firehouse, is like entering C.S. Lewis’ wardrobe to Narnia . . . intriguing, transformative, and powerful beyond words.

Lenana Students Holding Their New Text Books

We are so excited at Lift the Lid to be teaming with Darien Book Aid Plan in shipping books to the schools we support in Kenya. Our partnership started with a donation of beautiful new text books on writing from DBA. The books explore career options involving writing, they focus on writing skills, and they give examples of writing from honored men and women authors, such as Junot Diaz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Beattie, Washington Irving, and Gertrude Stein, to name a few. DBA not only supplied the text books, they offered to help us with shipping them, as well. In no time, the boxes were packed, labeled, and loaded on a truck. Amazing!!

Students from Mogonjet Secondary School in Kericho, Kenya

Since we started in 2010, Lift the Lid has raised over $60,000, 100% of which funds scholarships and projects such as the construction of classrooms, a library and a science lab, buying uniforms and shoes, implementing and sustaining a lunch program, providing menstrual cups, starting a band with free music lessons, and funding a summer school program. We hold annual writing competitions and make yearly book donations in an ongoing effort to build/expand libraries. Finally, since we began, we’ve published 82 students’ personal essays and 40 students’ poems, which adds up to a fair amount of reflection, expression, and believing in oneself!

Finalists of Lift the Lid’s 6th Annual Writing Competition at Mogonjet

We’re now collecting photos of the students receiving the books, and it’s so much fun to see their smiles. The students we support are pushing forward, despite hardships, toward their dream of a better life for their family and community. Already they are an inspiration to us!

Lenana Students Showing Their Appreciation