1. PROGRESSIVE REPORT
JANUARY TO APRIL
2023
P. O. Box 102362, Kampala
- Kawempe
ugcomlib2007@gmail.com
www.uclia.org
Twitter: @comlibug
Facebook: Community
Libraries Association of
Uganda
A Library in Every Village

2. 2
Contents
1. Introduction................................................................................... 3
2. D.E.A.R Week ................................................................................ 3
3. International day of Education.................................................. 4
4. Partner Development Program (PDP) ..................................... 4
5. Book Aid International partner visit ........................................ 6
6. Community Library Launch....................................................... 7
7. Community Reading Awards .................................................... 8
8. Membership................................................................................... 9
9. Book donations ............................................................................ 9
10. Library visits............................................................................. 10
11. Finance ...................................................................................... 11
12. Planned activities for the next quarter............................... 11
13. Conclusion................................................................................ 12
Appendix 1 - Statistics from libraries – January to March 2023 .........13

3. 3
1. Introduction
This report highlights the progress of activities of community Libraries
Association of Uganda and its members for the period January to April 2023.
With the number of literacy supporters and implementers of related activities
rising, here are some of the activities and progresses.
2. D.E.A.R Week
Community libraries around the country partnered with Rotary clubs on
January 16th
to 22nd
to champion a whole week of reading in the community.
Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) was aimed at making reading a way of
life. Libraries mobilized the people in the community during reading week
and provided a platform to conduct reading activities including spelling, read
aloud, drawing, silent reading and storytelling among others.
One of the pictures
of readers from
Youth Rising
Community Library
during the DEAR
Week.
Community Libraries that participated include Lutex, Access Knowledge
Africa, and Youth Rising received book donations to add to their library
collection. The reading week strengthened partnership of Rotary clubs and

4. 4
Community Libraries towards fighting illiteracy. We appreciate the role
played by Rotary district 9213 in working together with libraries to conduct
reading.
3. International day of Education
The coordinator represented the Association in the celebrations of the
International day of Education which was held on 24th
January 2023 at
Makerere University under the theme “To invest in people, Prioritize
Education”. As stakeholders in ensuring access to education, we were
invited to take part in this event. Also some members of the community
libraries fraternity attended. Read to Learn Book Drive Foundation, a
community library based in Nsambya Kampala was among the organisers of
this event. Achan Rebecca from the foundation was one of the panelist and
she urged people to establish and make use of community libraries as these
are the nearest centres that serve community members and thus encourage
learning.
4. Partner Development Program (PDP)
The coordinator attended a six weeks online self-study as part of the Partner
Capacity Development program organized and sponsored by Book Aid
International. Areas of study included resource mobilization, project
management, advocacy and Human Resource Management. All aimed at
increasing the knowledge and skills for efficient and effective administration.
The partner development program also involved a 3 day capacity
strengthening workshop in Nairobi, Kenya that took place from 13th
to 15th
March 2023. The coordinator and Chairperson were selected by the board
members to represent and fully participate in this capacity building program.

5. 5
The partners involved were the Community Libraries Association of Uganda,
EISERVI Cameroon, Edward Ndlovu Memorial Trust Zimbabwe, Ineza
Foundation Rwanda, Rainbow Trust Foundation Ghana, Save The Needy
Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Book Trust and The Street Children
Empowerment Foundation Ghana.
Key aspects during the event included; how trainers/facilitators engage
participants during training to promote reading and active involvement in the
communities they serve, conducting monitoring and evaluation as well as
child safe guarding issues. The participating organizations later came up with
a Community of Practice (COP) to enhance continuous knowledge and
experience sharing among the participants after the event.
This program involved site visits to Kenya National Library Service, Kibera
and MYSA Library. Learning visits aimed at understanding the different
programs undertaken by these libraries that can be adopted in/shared with
libraries back to our countries.
Some of the
Participants
from
different
countries
who
represented
at the event
in Nairobi,
Kenya

6. 6
5. Book Aid International partner visit
COLAU was delighted to host the Chief Executive of Book Aid International
Alison Tweed in March. The board and staff from COLAU was able to share
achievements, challenges and impacts from the work of improving literacy
using books and related activities. As a major Book donor, BAI has
committed to providing over 5,000 books to community libraries in Uganda
through COLAU. As part of their strategic plan, Alison states that this number
of donations can be increased depending on the holding capacity of COLAU.
The Chairperson COLAU
Solomon Ochwo-Oburu
during a site visit to MYSA
Githurai Library, Kenya.
David Cherop of Kenya
National Library Service
taking visitors through the
book process

7. 7
She commended COLAU for being a strong network of community libraries
in Africa.
Board Members and staff during the meeting with BAI’s Chief Executive, Alison Tweed
6. Community Library Launch
Namanya Memorial Community Library located in Kampala, Nansana,
Katooke A was launched on 18th
March, 2023. The library is open to the
public and contains over 3,000 information resources for all levels. Collins
Alinaitwe the founder of this library thanked all those people in their different
capacities that supported the initiative of having a library in their community
and urged members to fully utilize the resources since they are meant for
them. Some of their books are part of the donations received through COLAU
from donors Book Aid International.

8. 8
7. Community Reading Awards
Three COLAU members; Art of a child community library, Monica Memorial
Resource Centre and St. Jude Information and Media Centre are
implementing reading micro projects in their communities. These micro
projects are as a result of community Reading awards by partners Book Aid
International were each library received a grant of 1540 GBP. The libraries
projects and aims are as below;
Community Library Micro-Project
name
Aim
Art of a child A book club in every
school
 Establish fun book clubs in ten
schools through a mobile library and
teacher-led activities
Monica Memorial
Resource Center
Mobile Reading
Parks
 Establish Mobile Reading parks in 3
villages of Oleva, Asava and
Awindiri, Arua district through
provision of Book Banks containing
up to 300 books.
 Train volunteers and teachers in
basic book management and
reading promotion
 Provide bicycles for volunteers to
reach each Reading Park and
change books in the book bank
St. Jude Information
and Media Center
Osupa Community
Reading
Enhancement
 Create a small community library in
Osupa Primary School, Pallisa for
upper primary school pupils (P5-7)
COLAU takes the responsibility for collecting project progress reports and
financial reports from the libraries according to the agreed on timelines.

9. 9
8. Membership
Nakivale Community library network - Isingiro
district, Canon Esau Public library, Rukiga
District, Mukasa Foundation community Library - Luweero district and Azira
Micheal Youth Foundation - Kiboga district are the new additions to the
membership base. We are looking towards having more libraries and
institutions register and become members of the association to make it
strong and stronger. Three members; M-LISADA Library, Marko Lukooya
Community library and Jane Kawalya have paid their member subscriptions
for 2023. We urge libraries to kindly pay their subscriptions in time.
9. Book donations
African Library project through
partners Enjuba donated over
1,000 children’s books each to
7 community libraries
registered under the
Community Libraries
Association of Uganda. The
libraries resources have been
enriched with these collections.
Beneficiaries include; Youth Corps Learning Centre, Access Knowledge
Africa, Leadership Resource Centre, Monica Memorial Resource Centre,
Youth Rising community library, YWCA Institute library and Mukasa
Foundation community library. These and many other beneficiaries
underwent a virtual librarian training on 29th
/04/2023. We appreciate the
154 Registered
Members

10. 10
donors for supporting the work of community libraries and look towards
continued support for the betterment of these spaces in the community.
10. Library visits
The coordinator visited Canon Esau Public library on 19/April/2023. This
library was founded by Hillary Turyakira in commemoration of the late Canon
Esau Turyakira. Found in Rukiga district, western Uganda, the library started
in January 2023 with currently 2 shelves holding about 200 books (Self-help
and reference dictionaries) and a computer room containing 10 working
machines without internet connection though. The library provides reading
space and photocopying services to people in the community. It is run by 3
permanent staff who operate full time. Hillary says he is happy to be part of
the community Libraries Association and their major need right now is
additional reading materials. On average they receive 20 users per day and
they plan to extend
library services to the
neighboring schools
which have no library.
The coordinator
appreciated the idea of
starting up the library
and advised on the
best practices for
managing it like having
accession, borrowers and attendance registers, library stamp, activity
schedule board among others.

11. 11
11. Finance
Income received over the period January to April, 2023
Income
Library/organization Amount (UGX) Reason
Book Aid
International
21,000,000 Grants - Community Reading Awards (3
Members libraries)
Friends of African
village Libraries
12,797,460 Administration
Registration 600,000 4 New members
Subscription 300,000 3 members
Book Aid International 760,000 Partner Development Program – Nairobi
event Facilitation for 2 members
Total 35,457,460
12. Planned activities for the next quarter
Period Activity Resources
May  Reporting: on-going/planned projects,
activities and programs by members,
partners, funders, well-wishers and
sponsors
 Capacity Building and networking:
Physical and online engagements
 Respond to member queries:
Messages, social media platforms,
telephone calls, email.
 Member registration
 Member call to pay annual subscription
Financial
Time
Human
Information
June  Reporting: on-going/planned projects,
activities and programs by members,
Financial
Time

12. 12
partners, funders, well-wishers and
sponsors
 Capacity Building and networking:
Physical and online engagements
 Respond to member queries:
Messages, social media platforms,
telephone calls, email.
 Member registration
 Member call to pay annual subscription
Human
Information
July  AGM and conference
 Book Distribution
 Librarian Training
 Project implementation
 Reporting
 Member registration
Financial
Time
Human
Information
August  Library visit (Library to be indentified)
 Project implementation
 Reporting
 Member registration
 Any other activities
Financial
Time
Human
Information
13. Conclusion
COLAU continues to render support either directly or indirectly and maintain a network of
libraries distributed all over the country. This has been possible with the involvement of
local, national and international organizations that recognize and appreciate the role
played by these libraries in fighting illiteracy. Amidst recurring political, social and
economic challenges, libraries, librarians, parents and teachers are striving hard to offer
information and library services to respective communities for the betterment of the
society. We look forward to a stronger and active network of libraries, sponsors, like
minded individuals, partners and funders within the country that contribute to this cause.

13. 13
Appendix 1 - Statistics from libraries – January to March 2023
No. Library January February March Total
M F M F M F
1 Nyarushanje Community Library
and Empowerment Centre
806 1013 431 445 381 540 3,616
2 Nambi Sseppuuya Community
Resource Centre
84 117 219 282 116 202 1,020
3 Mummy Foundation Community
Library
103 140 20 37 19 37 356
4 Centre For Children and Library
Foundation
25 5 13 60 12 50 165
5 Monica Memorial Resource
Center
103 140 20 37 19 37 356
6 Kawempe Youth Centre
108 145 112 132 127 135
759
7 Lutex Community Library 06 15 06 17 7 12 63
8 M-LISADA Library 20 15 10 05 18 20 88
9 Youth Corps Learning Centre 20 27 17 40 27 60 191
10 Marko Lukooya Memorial
Community Library
29 18 12 17 72 133 281
11 Kyabutaika Community Library
10 12
15 05 21 25 88
12 Nyungu Streams Community
Resource Center
- - 4 5 7 7 23
13 Busesa Community Library 110 80 81 42 108 42 463
14 PEFO Jinja Community Library 148 141 191 95 59 50 684
15 YWCA Vocational Library 10 15 20 35 25 40 145
16 Pallisa Public Library 176 75 259 213 172 134 1,029
17 Nyaka Blue Lupin Library 261 298 212 235 133 165 1,304
18 Youth Rising Community Library 150 121 50 34 88 33 476
19 Kitengesa Community Library 142 339 628 790 507 684 3,090
20 Kutamba Blue Lupin Library 18 24 137 238 154 397 968
Source – Community library reports, 2023