Community Reading Days

We are on the road to yet another reading day. This time, we are going to read and engage with the children in Lwengo, a district right before Masaka found in Central Uganda together with one of our last mile partners, Kyamaganda Community Development Organisation. 

We arrived at around 8 am to the headquarters of Kyamaganda Community Development Organisation (KCDO) and found children seated under small white tents really eager to see what the we had for them. One could see their excitement by the way some of the children rushed to help us carry the books and reading aids out of the travel van.

The program kicked off with a prayer by the team leader of KCDO and the team introductions from KCDO and enjuba were made. The Community Development Officer and District Education Officer’s presence was recognized and they went ahead to share a few words of encouragement to the children and parents as well. 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. In addition to the reading sessions, we also had talks with the youth that were present. These talks were centered around standing by the right values in society and having a good attitude towards the importance of education in ones’ life. Some of the values that were discussed were picked from one of our afro-centric books called, “A Boy Named Justice,” which teaches about managing conflict and doing what’s right. The youth shared their experiences about their understanding of Justice in a school setting and also gave examples of the kinds of injustices they have seen and how best society can go about them.

As the children and youth sessions went on, the parents were also engaged. This session was led by one of our team members, Aaron Kirunda. During this session, conversations were held around how parents can support their children through their education and set them on a trajectory for success.

In Lwengo, we found out that only 18% of children we interacted with had ever owned at least a storybook of their own and yet all the children shared with us that they enjoy reading. The story is not any different for other reading days we have had in different communities around Uganda. For each one of these communities during such uncertain times, smiles and hope have been restored onto children and parents’ faces as well as into their lives with just a beautifully illustrated and culturally relevant storybook. 

And because of this, we would like to say thank you for your continued support towards our project.