Books Open the World Winter December 2010
Reading Centers for Everybody
In 2010, Victor Lawrence, BOTW volunteer, visited Uganda in June. With the funds from the Nando Peretti foundation grant (Kibale Libraries Project), Victor opened a new library in Kasenda village, and helped with starting another reading place in Kitumba.
Now BOTW supports 7 community libraries!
Read more about Victor’s work and experience at http://www.booksopentheworld.org/newsletter/index-2010.php.
All seven libraries have been operating well with stable or slightly increasing numbers of visitors and books being borrowed. The dominant groups are high-school students and, as a result, libraries are quiet when students are preparing for their exams and busier 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.
Children continue to visit libraries every Saturday and enjoy listening to stories and doing drawings. Usually there are around 10-30 children in each library every weekend.
BOTW supports Education for Girls
In eastern Africa 87% of children out of school live in rural areas. There are a limited numbers of secondary schools, but also the transition between primary and seconday schools is still very low. On average only 40% of children go to secondary schools where they need to pay fees (although 70% of children pass exams). In Uganda, only 6% of children of the poorest families that live below the poverty level, complete secondary education. And most of these children are boys. Only 32% of secondary school students are girls. In Uganda, there are many barriers for girls to continue education, like: poverty (35% of families live below the poverty level), HIV/AIDS (at least 1 mln AIDS orphans under 15 yrs), child labour (1.5 mln children work), early marriages, and pregnancies. But education is more than just learning. It saves lives – from teenagers it protects against HIV/AIDS and early pregnancies (girls who go to school marry later and have 50% less children on average) to the babies saved by mothers’ knowledge of health and nutrition (each additional year of schooling for women) results in 5-10% decrease in child mortality).
Since 2005, first with a grant from the Nando Peretti foundation for ‘Kibale Girls Project’ and later with the support from private sponsors, BOTW is helping to pay school fees for orphan girls and from the poorest families in rural areas in western Uganda.
In 2010, with your support, ten girls went to secondary school.
One of the girls, Robinah, with no family support at all, received an additional small monthly stipend from BOTW to pay for her accommodation and food while schooling.
Creating Community through Football
Our manager-in-the-field, Peter continued to be an enthusiastic and resourceful volunteer in Uganda. He is especially active in promoting the libraries in the communities. This December he organized a football competition among the libraries. Especially when it became known that there was a prize to be won, the idea caught on tremendously. The trophy is to be kept in the library of the winning team and can be defended next time. At the semi-finals in Kanyawara, about 500 people turned up including the district Member of Parliament and different levels of Local Chairmen. They visited the Kanyawara library and pledged support - transport for the teams and a music system for the finals. The MP offered balls and a willingness to support further plans. If nothing else, this got everybody talking about the libraries, and fostered a community feeling centered around them.
After tough games Kigarama Community Library got the trophy! Congratulations!
BOTW goals for 2011
Active Community Libraries
Unfortunately, fundraising for the libraries fell short in 2010. With the grant received from Nando Peretti we were able to open two new community reading centers (and keep them open for 2 yrs) but these funds do not support rent and salaries for librarians in the five other libraries.
Your support will make a big difference for many people in Uganda.
For the average person in Uganda, books are very expensive. In rural places, like villages around Kibale National Park (where BOTW operates), children do not have any contact with words in print except for school books which stay in the school and usually there are five or six of them for a class of over 100 children!
It is very difficult to learn how to read and write if you do not have anything to read. With community libraries opened short distances from schools and operated daily, students have a chance to use school books in the reading rooms just for themselves. But, most of all, the reading centers give children and adults the chance to see the whole world through the pages of many, many books. Let’s keep these libraries open!
Scholarships for girls
Education is a right of all, girls and boys, rich and poor. However, in Uganda, half of all women are unable to read and write. In 2010, our friend and volunteer, Paulina Kramarz (Krakow, Poland), helped BOTW to raise the funds for scholarships for a few girls to continue their education in secondary schools.
With your support more girls in Uganda will have a chance to continue their education and therefore have opportunities to make independent decisions in their lives.
Thank you for your support!