Education Uganda Project #29909

20,000 Books for Children in Rural Uganda

by enjuba Spelling Bee

Project Report | Mar 4, 2022
The Magic of Books

By Aaron Kirunda | Chief Executuve

Towards Christmas, and with the longest school closure in the world, we wanted to celebrate with children and give them hope that perhaps the new year could be different.

We set out to a fishing village in Bugoba, Buikwe District, where we had coordinated with the local council leadership to mobilize their constituents. We arrived at 9 am to a mammoth welcome of children eager to read, and parents curious as who would think about them – a village far from civilization.

We immediately delved into getting ourselves acquainted with our environment, registering children who had arrived, conducting a baseline survey and soon enough we were making speeches introducing our program, a purely community driven endeavor. Immediately after that, we then went into break out sessions with the children according class and age and the parents were separated from the children to have their parenting talk session.

Working in teams of two per breakout session, we carried out fun-filled reading activities like the spelling bingo, read aloud, and the library basics where children learnt the very best ways on how to handle books, new words and letter sounds. As the children’s sessions went on, the parents were also engaged. Here we got to learn first-hand the challenges in the community and their possible solutions and shared with the parents practical steps that they can take to support their children’s learning.

We ended the day on a high note with each child getting a book, that they can now call their own. As you can imagine, it was a scramble, they just could not have enough of them, and thsi when we concluded that these books are magical. Thanks to your continued support and helping the children in these rural areas enjoy magical moments from getting books to enjoying them.

Permalink

Nov 2, 2021
Rekindling the love for reading

By Lizza Kawoya | Fundraising & Partnerships Manager

Its 7am and we are all trying to beat the morning road traffic to Lungujja, 6km away from the Kampala City Centre. Coming from a long country lockdown with no gatherings, we were all excited to meet the children and parents at Youth Corps Learning Center on the 2^nd of October. This time around, it wasn’t just an energetic enjuba team of 6. We were joined by a team from Stanbic Bank Voice Branch who were so enthusiastic about the reading day.

On our arrival, we found a number of children already seated on plastic chairs anxiously waiting on the activities that we had prepared for them. We were wowed by what the children had in stock for us. We were entertained by two groups of children that had a fascinating dance choreography.

After the children showed off their cool dance moves, we then separated the children from the parents and further into small groups. The parents went up to the library building and William Mukisa, one of our staff together with a few members of Stanbic Bank Voice Branch kicked off the parenting session. The session comprised of conversations on how parents can both cultivate strong relationships with their children and create conducive environments for their children’s success.

The rest of the enjuba team then went ahead to conduct fun-filled reading sessions, the Bingo game and talks with youth that had previously dropped out of school. Within the youth session, they were able to share about their dreams and what steps they would take to achieve them. The enjuba staff supported the youth and affirmed to them that their dreams were valid. In retrospect, the children surely had so much fun that many of them shared with us that they were very excited to read their new storybooks. During this reading day, we found that only 23% of children had ever owned a book of their own leaving about 77% of children who had never owned a book and yet enjoyed reading. This partly explained the excitement that we saw from these children. Thanks to your support. Now all the children own a book.

This was not so different from the reading day we had in one of the urban slums called Katuuso in Bunga. With this particular reading day, we found that 100% of the children had never owned a book of their own and yet enjoyed reading.

These kinds of findings continue to motivate us to reach more children across Uganda to contribute to their journey of falling in love with books so they can learn to read and read to learn eventually.

We are forever grateful for your support and love and because of that, we say thank you!

Permalink

Jul 6, 2021
Everlasting Smiles

By Lizza Marie Kawooya | Business Development Manager

Off we go to another reading day. It is dawn and the sun is just rising. We are on the road to Jinja, one of the most toured cities in our country, Uganda. Our journey is filled with beautiful sceneries starting from the heart of Jinja town to Bujhagali village, a few kilometers away from the town.

At our arrival to Bujhagali village, all we could see were lit up faces of joyous little children, parents and grandmothers from different villages ready to spend a day with us. As we waited for the others to join, Judith Akello, a Programme Associate at Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans and Vulnerable children (PEFO), showed us around the facilities of the organization. One could not stop to appreciate the fantastic job PEFO had done to develop their community right from the community library to the poultry farm, and to the homes built for vulnerable grandmothers.

What caught our attention most was how vibrant their community library was. It not only accommodated children of all ages, backgrounds and socio-economic context but also, young youths with interests in computer studies. By the end of our tour, all the stakeholders had arrived to start the event.

With a prayer, we started the first session of the day. Each member of the enjuba team introduced themselves and gave a glimpse of what they were to do that day. Before the breakout sessions, Rodney Ssewanyana who is part of the enjuba team warmed up the children with a little game where they spelt words with their bodies. With oozing excitement, the children quickly ran to the break out sessions that were according to their classes. The parents and grandmothers also gathered together to have a parenting talk with one of the enjuba members.

Within the children breakout sessions, we carried out the spelling bingo and race games as well as read alouds where each child received their own book. It was not hard to see the hope in some of the children’s eyes after receiving their first storybook. This continued to vividly confirm the several responses we received in our baseline survey that none of the children respondents had ever owned a book in their life and yet 100% of the children respondents said that they enjoy reading.

This was not any different from the 3 other communities; Kakindu, Kasawo and Salaama where we also carried out reading days in the months of April and May. The books were not only given to the children but also to the parents where they received parenting books in their session. The parenting session comprised of talks around building positive parent-child relationships, fronting children’s education as well as supporting them in all ways. However, we couldn’t help but notice the high number of grandmothers in Bujhagali village during the Parenting sessions. We then got to find out that the grandparents were mostly or wholly the care takers of the children; explaining why only 13% of the children respondents shared that they live with both their parents.

To add to the children’s parents and grandparents’ smiles and hope, over 200 solar lamps were given out to each family in the community of Kasawo, Mityana district by our partner, Let There Be Light International with an effort to allow the children read at night. And because of your generosity, 758 books were given to children and 204 parenting books were given to the parents and grandparents of those communities; for that we thank our donors.

The everlasting smiles on the faces of the children and parents whenever they receive the books and lamps even amidst a global pandemic are what keep us going!

Permalink

1 2 3 4 5 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.