It is Friday morning, and I am at the Kibera Library.

Soon, I will be having story writing with some of the children who use the library.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only 8 will participate.

The librarian and I encourage the children to think about their life during Covid-19. They can then write a story about their experiences.

We give them writing material and explain the writing process.

Some children start writing straight away. Others take some time to think and look around before starting to write.

An hour later, we give them an opportunity to read their story or to talk about it to the group.

We let them all know that it is OK to share or not to share.

Three of them read their stories. One has written about how girls are feeling very unsafe during the pandemic.

Another tells of losing his grandma to Covid-19.

We all listen.

Later, I edit six of the stories. I manage to make them all 8 page stories.

I also write some notes to suggest the kind of picture that would go with each page.

Ideally, the writers of the stories should draw the pictures for their stories. This is not possible.

The day I had planned, none of the children who wrote, are available. Some have had to travel to the rural areas because of Covid-19.

I get 12 different children to draw images.

I ask the children to choose a partner to work with. One child decides to work alone.

I read out the titles of the stories and I get pairs to volunteer.

I do this until all six stories have been allocated.

Each pair reads the story they are allocated. They then decide on the colours they will use.

I give each pair the colour crayons they need. They work together to sketch and colour.

I walk around to support the children and to affirm their work.

Using a tablet, librarians publish each story on the Storybook Maker App.

All the six stories are available on the African Storybook website as picture story books.

Using the Storybook Maker to create and publish stories is very easy.

Children have used it on their own. It is an exciting experience.

Communities that don't have any reading material in their languages, can publish.

They can work together to create resources for their own use.