Library, Literacy Center Honors Kanye West's Mom

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By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 6/11/2008 2:05:00 PM

A library and literacy center in Sierra Leone will be named after rapper Kanye West’s late mother, Donda West, to honor the contributions she made to the children there. The Los Angeles-based charity Shine On Sierra Leone says the Donda West Library & Literacy Center is scheduled to break ground this fall in Bongema. It will serve students at the local Muddy Lotus Primary School and also offer free literacy classes to parents. The goal of the literacy center is to help the 80 percent illiteracy rate in the community.

The mother-and-son team has a history of helping kids in the African nation. In 2005, Donda West and the Kanye West Foundation donated $5,000 to renovate the dilapidated Muddy Lotus Primary School and provide textbooks for 416 children. The money went toward building a new roof, providing new desks and books, and giving “a new future for children who eagerly attended school faithfully each day, regardless of their dire surroundings and home life,” wrote Kanye on his blog. 

The charity is hosting an August fundraiser in Los Angeles with the goal of raising $100,000 for the library and literacy center.

Donda West, 58, died on November 10, 2007 just one day after undergoing tummy tuck and breast reduction surgery in Los Angeles.