20,000 Books for Children in Rural Uganda

This year, we decided to take a community oriented approach to reach children in
the rural areas because of COVID19 induced school closures which continues to
place the majority of children at home, and in most cases not learning at all.

We are working with our last mile partners and have so far visited communities in
Kisindizi, Mubende District; Kabembe and Kisoga in Mukono District.

We started off in Kisindizi Village, Mubende district holding a community reading day
and parents talk. An energised enjuba team of 7 set off from the capital city,
Kampala at 6am to Kisindizi village on the 28th of January. On our arrival, we found 
a number of children with overwhelming smiles on their faces seated on benches
waiting to see what the day had for them. The team went ahead to introduce
themselves to the little ones as well as the parents that had come along. We then
separated the children from the parents and further into small groups according to
their age and class. The program had a lot of fun learning activities for the children
and engaging conversations for the parents. Among the learning activities we had
the Bingo game, Spelling race and finally a Read aloud session. At the end of the
day, each child was given a storybook of their own – to many their very first story
book (82% had never owned a story book), so that they can continue to read at
home and share with their friends.

While all this was going, one of the team members took lead on the parents, talking
with them about how they can nurture meaningful relationships and environments at
home that promote healthy child development and encourage their children to learn.
The parents were also gifted with parenting books (Parenting with Love) and Health
books (Where there is no Doctor).

This was repeated in the following two villages of Kisoga and Kabembe, and
specifically in Kisoga, the children also got a chance to receive solar lamps, thanks
to our partners, Solar Health Uganda and Let There Be Light International.

Through these 3 events we have been able to circulate 356 books to both children
and parents, 200 solar lamps, enabling children and households have access to
books and solar lamps. This has put smiles to children’s faces and given them hope
to for a brighter future.