Books Open the World Winter 2009
Volunteers
This year there were many changes in the lives of BOTW volunteers. Gosia and Freerk moved from Davis, California to Tartu in Estonia. One good thing about this move is that they can continue their research and Freerk will be in Uganda for a month early next year, thus providing an opportunity work with the libraries on the ground.
Meanwhile, Joel had a second child and therefore continues to be occupied with family and work matters.
In Sarah Paige we had a perfect manager for BOTW in Uganda. Unfortunately for us, she went back home to Seattle in August, after finishing research on human health matters around Kibale National Park. We all hope that she can continue her work in Uganda one day. Luckily we found a great replacement in Peter Ahabyona (right) who has taken over Sarah’s tasks. Volunteer and librarian, Victor Lawrence was planning to go work with BOTW this summer but had to change his plan as a recession set in and he hopped to new job.
Despite all these changes the ‘real work’ on the ground has continued guided daily by our faithful local committee consisting of Bonny Balyeganira, Francis Katuramu and Clovis Kaganzi.
Libraries
All five libraries have been operating well with stable or slightly increasing numbers of visitors and books being borrowed. The dominant group are high school students and, as a result, libraries are quiet when students are preparing for exams and the most busy during the holidays. The school books and study rooms (in Ruteete, Kanyawara and Kigarama) are used for reading, meeting with children and preparing for exams, but most students use their notes at home. Kigarama library moved to a new location just up the road because the old place became too expensive.
Children continue to visit libraries every Saturday and enjoy listening to stories and do drawings. Usually there are around 10-30 children in each library every weekend. One Saturday children in Kigarama had a nice surprice! - a package has come with drawings and pencils! Children from one class of primary school in small village in eastern Poland, Bircza, had send it to establish a contact with children in Kigarama. When the package arrived childrenwho come to library were very excited and they prepared drawings about their lives. Later the pictures were send to that school in Poland.
Scholarships
This year BOTW with the help of the Nando Peretti and private donors, sponsored education of 14 girls in secondary and high schools around Kibale. All girls come from poor families that were unable to pay school fees and most of them are also orphans. BOTW keeps contact with schools where the students are and regularly receives letters about their performance. This year eight girls that received scholarships from BOTW will be taking O-level exams. Two girls in Kigaram Talents High School were not coming often to the school because of pregnancy. Unfortunately, this is common despite being strongly discouraged by school management. Our approach has been to still give them a chance to finish school later and take final exams. We hope that this opportunity for education will help them in their lives, one way or the other.
Collaborations
BOTW is not the only organization in the area working for Education and we need to coordinate and cooperate with each other. Ugandan committee chairman, Bonny Balengyara and BOTW manager, Sarah Paige participated in Kibale Forest Environmental Education Steering Committee meeting in Kibale in June 2009. Bonny will also attend the next such a meeting in January 2010. The goal of the meetings was to establish collaboration between different organisations working around Kibale National Park to raise academic standards and to improve conservation education in schools around the National Park. This effort is headed by Elizabeth Ross (Kasiisi project). BOTW also have contact with other library organizers in Uganda.
Funding
Not all news is good. With the economic downturn and changes in the lives of organizers fundraising has seen a steep decline. This means that we cannot support more girls in secondary school or let them move on to A-levels.
We also worry whether we can continue to operate all libraries. We try to keep the costs low with monthly rent at about $10 and librarians earning $40 per month (6 half-days per week), but it still adds up.
Your support will make a big difference for many people in Uganda.