In 2004, four students from Signature School in Evansville Indiana started working on Peter’s dream to have a place in his village where there would be books to read, something he never had growing up. He had shared this dream one day in his lecture at Signature School on HIV/AIDS and education. With the help of the Evansville community, the group quickly raised funds. Construction began shortly after in Kenya by local workers. Peter’s brother, Jared, coordinated the building crews and materials in his home village.
The library was inaugurated in 2006 in Ekerenyo, Kenya, with 11 people from Evansville and Peter Mageto from Nairobi attending. The library was originally known as the Amani Reading Centre, and is now called the Amani Learning Centre, due to its focus on general learning. A computer lab with 6 computers now has an instructor teaching computer skills. The entire property, which will also house the new Amani Health Centre, is known as the Amani Centre.
(“Amani” means “Peace” in Swahili)
