Kanye's Mom Lives On
-- School Library Journal, 7/1/2008
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 center's goal is to reduce 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 fund-raiser in Los Angeles with the goal of collecting $100,000 for the library and literacy center.
Donda West died in November 2007 at the age of 58.
