Written by Isaiah Kirieri

English is the official language of communication among the HHFL kids and staff. In the past, we have emphasized this by equipping our library with English books but it has been difficult to keep all the children engaged as well as provide the right levels of personal attention.

This year, we are excited to announce a new partnership with IBM Kenya to help improve HHFL’s early childhood literacy in English via IBM’s new online tool called Reading Companion. This is the first time that this tool is being used in Kenya and we are thrilled to be the inaugural recipients!

Our primary school children are loving this program because they can study in a virtual classroom where they learn to read and pronounce English via a series of interactive e-books that are classified by levels.

Each student is assigned a virtual tutor and their progress is tracked online.  IBM Kenya went the extra mile by providing 20 headsets with recording capacity to enhance the learning environment.  

The children are having so much fun. I’ve noticed that they are much more engaged now. They enjoy learning online at their own pace and according to their ability. Technology is sweet!  

We’d like to sincerely thank IBM Kenya, and in particular, Mildred Otieno for giving HHFL the opportunity to benefit from IBM’s quality Corporate Citizenship programs.

We are very excited to make maximum use of the Reading Companion to give our kids the strongest head start possible.