The joy that Strathmore University Staff book club(SSBC) promised has finally been delivered. What started out as an idea after a Webinar on Building a Family that reads together is finally taking shape. Perhaps, I should give more context to this.

Genesis of the book club

The People and Culture Office have been organizing webinar series during this pandemic to address different issues relating to the wellness of the staff. One of these was a talk on Building Families that read together that I facilitated on 24^th June, 2020. After the session, a number of staff members shared their desire to read more. However, most of them shared their frustrations and failure to read more general books despite the fact that they longed to read. After the session, a brainstorming session followed and a decision to start a Staff Book Club was arrived at and the People and Culture Office asked me to start it. I took the challenge and started.

This would be the start of a number of engagements and an exciting journey. Yesterday was the “official launch” of the book club. A total of 92 staff members showed interest and commitment to be part of the Club. Guided by their different Club Stars (Club leaders), they selected the book(s) to start from and set targets, framework of support and strategy of execution. While the whole idea behind the book club is exciting, the desired impact is even more exciting to me.

A chain of good

Imagine a scenario where the staff from different faculties read together, sharing knowledge amongst themselves, growing in love and bonding more! Then the same cheer will be spread to our families, since the Book Club also aims at teaching and encouraging the staff to bring their families along. At the end of it, it will be a chain of good that the books will bring to our homes and to our world.

Let’s get reading

Why has it taken so long for the treasure in books to be discovered? Why are we still proud of talking about the movies we have watched yet we are not so proud giving reviews of the books we have read? Why haven’t we taken note that most of the people we admire, those who have accomplished great things in life are avid readers? Why haven’t we protested the fact that our history is always lost within the cracks of books we have never read? Why are we always happy to get “processed” information from the media and other sources and never interested in “getting to the bottom” of them in books? Well, when it comes to books, there are many questions we can ask. But of all the questions and answers we can provide, the fact remains that we need to start from somewhere, and this is where SU Staff Book Club is starting from.

The journey will be exciting. I am inviting you not to be left out. Reach out to me should you wish to be counted among those who changed the history of our time, when it comes to reading. My email is; gdinda@strathmore.edu

Now. Let’s get reading

 

This article was written by Gabriel Dinda. 

 

Would you like to share your experience of living through the circumstances brought by the Covid-19 pandemic? Kindly email: communications@strathmore.edu