20,000 Books for Children in Rural Uganda

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.