1. Friends of African Village Libraries
Annual Report, 2010
Friends of African Village Libraries
P.O. Box 90533
San Jose, CA 95109
www.favl.org
Contact Person:
Michael Kevane
Director for West Africa
408-554-6888 (work)
mkevane@scu.edu
Students
in Sumbrungu participate in group reading during Summer Reading Camps funded by
Chen Yat-Sen Foundation, August 2010.

2. Introduction
Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL) had a successful year in 2010. Generous donors
enabled FAVL to support fifteen libraries in Burkina Faso (10), Ghana (3), Tanzania (1), and
Uganda (1). FAVL also continued to support the Uganda Community Library Association,
which added 28 members and totaled 72 members at the end of 2010. UgCLA implemented a
children’s book distribution program and training workshop with funds from Pockets of Change.
FAVL inaugurated two new libraries in Burkina Faso, in Pobe-Mengao and in Bougounam,.
Summer reading camps were implemented in the libraries of northern Ghana thanks to a grant
from the Chen Yat-Sen Foundation. Liisle, Inc. supported reading camps in Burkina Faso in
summer 2010. FAVL implemented the second year of the Santa Clara University Reading West
Africa study abroad program that brought nine university students to Burkina Faso for four
months in fall of 2010. The 2009 and 2010 cohorts of the RWA program have published 55
micro-books that combine text and photography to produce engaging reading material for village
readers.
The continuing fundraising priorities of FAVL include: build an endowment for each of the
FAVL-managed community libraries; host summer reading camps in each library; produce more
micro-books in local languages and language of school instruction; and continue to build staff
capacity for expansion.
This annual report is organized by country. Each section contains information about activities in
each country. Appendix 1 provides general information about FAVL. Appendix 2 provides
breakdowns of visits and look borrowing in the Burkina Faso libraries. Appendix 3 provides an
overall income and expense report for FAVL.
Burkina Faso
The philosophy of the Burkina Faso team is to promote equal social development by giving
children and students from disadvantaged rural areas the opportunity to learn via village libraries.
We strive to make these libraries sustainable through the villagers’ involvement in library
committees and the work of our regional supervisors who ensure the proper management and
functioning of the libraries. Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL) was recognized in
Burkina Faso under Order No. 2007-13/MATD/SG/DGLPAP/DOASOC on February 15, 2007.
Always concerned about the quality of library service, FAVL makes every effort to ensure that
the libraries function as needed and provide the service for which they were created: to make
available a quality of books managed by a regularly trained librarian. Activities are typically held
once or twice a week during which the librarian runs various educational and recreational
activities with children, individually or in small groups. The activities can range anywhere from
storytelling and peer tutoring to singing songs and arts and crafts.
Gender is often taken into consideration when we conduct activities in the FAVL libraries. In
some of our libraries like Dimikuy and Boni—both built with the focus of encouraging the
2

3. education of young girls in village—discussions are held and activities are organized with young
girls and women. These are done in order to encourage young girls to study and continue their
education and the women to participate whole-heartedly in their child’s education and be
involved in their communities. Discussion are typically held on topics such as reproductive
health, family planning, HIV / AIDS, hygiene, nutrition etc.. Sometimes the discussions are led
by specialized agents including nurses or teachers.
Monthly meetings are held the first Thursday of each month and consist of open discussions
between FAVL’s managing staff and the FAVL librarians. The discussions address all issues and
concerns regarding proper library function. These meetings have also become a platform to
exchange experiences and to hold trainings via small workshop, particularly ones focusing on
leadership skills and library management. At times FAVL meetings include professionals like
teachers or health workers, who come to share their knowledge and answer questions relating to
their area of expertise.
With the opening of the Pobé-Mengao library
in April 2010, FAVL’s library network has
spread to northern Burkina Faso. We therefore
had to find a way to involve librarians from up
north in the monthly meetings. The decision
was made to hold meetings, at least one per
trimester, up north with the librarians in order
to encourage collaboration and keep them
updated on FAVL activities. The first meeting
took place at the CELPAC in Ouahigouya on
October 25, 2010.
During the year 2010, two new libraries were
created in the villages of Pobé-Mengao and
Bougounam. Both libraries were initiated by
Peace Corps volunteers with technical support
from FAVL and the help of the communities.
The Pobé-Mengao library is FAVL’s first
library project in northern Burkina Faso. The
project was initiated by Emilie Crofton, who
was a Peace Corps volunteer in the village.
Emilie collaborated with FAVL for more than
one year to ensure the establishment and
proper function of the village library. The Pobé-Mengao library officially opened its doors
during an opening ceremony on April 6, 2010. In attendance were all of Pobé’s administrative
authorities, villagers, students and special guest Kathy Knowles, director of OSU Children’s
Library Fund and author of several children's books.
Bougounam is a village located 25 kilometers from the city of Ouahigouya. The Bougounam
Library was initiated by Jen Lazuta, also a Peace Corps volunteer living in the village. Jen
finished her two year service but extended for a third year to continue living in the village and
3

4. finish the projects she took to heart, including the library.
The library is equipped with electricity, allowing it to remain open at night. This is the only
FAVL library equipped with electricity other than solar. The Library officially opened on
October 10, 2010. Village authorities, other Peace Corps volunteers and students from the
Reading West Africa program were all in attendance.
FAVL also worked in 2010 to open the Béléhédé library, a project initiated by Charles Casler, a
Peace Corps volunteer, who saw the urgency of establishing a library in the village. He is
currently working with FAVL and the Béléhédé community to carry out the library project,
which is planned to open in May, 2011.
Libraries continued to see lots of visitors and borrowing of books. The summary statistics are in
the table below.
Table: Summary Statistics of Libraries in Burkina Faso
Library Number of Number of Library Visits Number of
subscribers books checked books in
out stock
Béréba 196 3,477 13,858 2,156
Boni 133 980 8,094 992
Bougounam 131 495 3,016 756
Dimikuy 38 676 7,228 390
Dohoun 253 1,996 7,302 1,852
Karaba 211 3,143 6,230 1,387
Koumbia 95 512 7,653 986
Pobe-Mengao 249 1,558 8,408 734
Sara 79 975 4,871 1,852
TOTAL 1,385 13,812 66,660 11,105
The year 2010 saw increased collaboration with Peace Corps.1 Two Peace Corps volunteers
joined the FAVL team in Burkina Faso. Charles Casler and Emilie Crofton began 2010-2011
working as volunteers for FAVL in the main office in Ouagadougou. Three (3) libraries have
been created with the initiatives and support of Peace Corps volunteers: The Pobé Mengao
1
Collaboration between FAVL and Peace Corps volunteers began in 2008 with Meghan Coughlin, who at the time
was a volunteer in Niakorodougou and established a library in the village. Throughout 2009, numerous volunteers
came to the FAVL office to get information on establishing a village library. This led to the Peace Corps inviting
Mr. Elisée SARE, FAVL’s national coordinator in Burkina Faso, to make a presentation on FAVL and its activities
at the Peace Corps Office on March 31st, 2009.
4

5. Library, initiated by Emilie Crofton; the Library of Bougounam, initiated by Jen Lazuta and a
youth center established in the town of Leo, initiated by Casey Kean. And let’s not forget the
Béléhédé Library, initiated by Charles Casler, hoping to open its doors in May 2011.
FAVL is a nonprofit organization which functions not only on grants and donations but on the
communities with FAVL libraries. We work with these communities in order to promote
development and education by providing access to knowledge via libraries. In this sense, having
Peace Corps volunteers who know enough about the rural ommunities, having lived there
themselves for two years, is a major asset for us. Charley and Emilie’s collaboration began
immediately as they actively and confidently participated in FAVL activities. Some of the
projects that Emilie and Charley have worked on:
- Participated in Boni’s reading camp in September 2010
- Assisted in the organization and participation of FILO
- Participated in a project researching the impact of reading on primary school students,
conducted in three FAVL libraries in the northern region of Ghana
- Raised funds for FAVL’s upcoming 2011 reading camps
- Created several FAVL projects now posted on Global Giving’s website
- Created page presentations for FAVL’s libraries on the website in French and English.
- Organized a fundraising event to raise funds in the local park in Ouagadougou
FAVL continued to organize summer reading camps. In 2010 these camps were funded by a
generous grant from Lisle, Inc. The camps were organized by FAVL staff, FAVL librarians and
several primary school teachers. Students participating in the camps were chosen at random,
given the limited number of spots available. Each camp occurred at the library and lasted one
week. Camp facilitators organized
various activities organized
around reading. Each child
received breakfast, lunch and a
camp tee-shirt. A number of
volunteers helped out at different
reading camps. Emilie and
Charley started their work at
FAVL by helping run the summer
reading camp in Boni. Students
from the Reading West Africa
study abroad program also took
part in running the reading camp
in Dimikuy. Their presence was a
great experience for both parties
and very beneficial in the
organization of future camps.
The reading camps are highly anticipated events in villages with FAVL libraries. It is fair to say
that the summer reading camp is a library’s most important annual event. The year 2010 was no
different. The objectives of the camps are to provide a sound framework for reading and
5

6. learning to students during their summer vacation.
For the second consecutive year, FAVL collaborated with Santa Clara University in California to
organize a study abroad program for American students called Reading West Africa. The
program was held in Burkina Faso and the students undertook a number of activities in the
FAVL libraries. Students in Reading West Africa stayed for a month in the villages of Béréba,
Dimikuy, Sara and Dohoun and
worked part of the time as assistant
librarians. This allowed them to
understand the basics of managing
a library in village, to exchange
experiences with the librarians and
readers and, most importantly, to
organize activities with the
children.
Each Reading West Africa student
had to produce three books of
photographs with simple text for
young readers and newly literate
adults. These books are very
popular in the FAVL libraries and
our desire is to make the books available to the general public of Burkina Faso. Reading West
Africa will continue every year, which means more and more books will be produced by the
students. We want to work with authorities in charge of education to introduce and popularize
these books – which could greatly benefit students throughout Burkina Faso. FAVL was able to
introduce this concept at the International Book Fair of Ouagadougou, and present the books at
our stand.
This year, for the very first time, FAVL participated at the International Book Fair of
Ouagadougou (FILO). It is an annual event that brings together all those involved in books and
literature. We participated in FILO for three major reasons. (1) FAVL has existed in Burkina
Faso for several years now. While the organization is fairly popular in rural areas and within the
institutional spheres of Burkina, it is still unknown to much of the urban public. With our
participation at this year’s FILO, FAVL was able to present itself to the public as a major player
in Burkina Faso; from the multiple libraries established throughout Africa to our recent project
producing culturally appropriate books for beginning readers. (2) FAVL, through the RWA
program, published twenty (20) books which we wanted to present to Burkina’s general public.
(3) FAVL wanted - for the first time – for all their librarians to get together to experience and
participate in FILO.
FILO theme for 2010 was "Introduction of Burkinabe Produced Literature in Educational
Programs,” making this year’s FILO the ideal platform to introduce our edited and co-edited
books. The books were created by Kathy Knowles, Chelsea Rangel and by students from
Reading West Africa. The books deal with everyday life in rural Burkina Faso and are very
suitable for readers. FAVL’s long term goal is to have the books used in primary schools across
6

7. the country.
Our participation in FILO was a great opportunity for us to involve all FAVL librarians and
library affiliates. The new librarians from northern Burkina Faso were able to get acquainted
with the older librarians from the western region. The librarians were also able to meet cultured
individuals including writers and storytellers and to participate in some of the activities that were
organized. FAVL staff took advantage of having all FAVL librarians in one place and organized
a meeting, running several small workshops on library activities and management.
FILO was a great success for us, as nearly 6,000 visitors passed through our stand and several
hundred people, including authorities, expressed much interest and wanted more information on
our organization. The books made by Reading West Africa students were incredibly popular.
They were only out for display but literally hundreds of people wanted to buy them and asked
why more were not produced in order to sell.
FAVL has a full agenda for 2011 in Burkina Faso. FAVL has plans to gradually surrender the
management of its village libraries to the communities in which the libraries are located. Our
goal is for communities to accept and integrate the library as part of a public service of the
municipality. This will require taking over the payment of the librarian’s salary, maintenance of
the library building and minor operating expenses. FAVL’s role will be to oversee the librarians’
work, to help increase the number of library books and support the continued training of the
librarians. A training is planned for the mayors in May 2011, in order to introduce this idea and
discuss methods of implementation for effective management of the libraries.
Also programmed for 2011, a solar lamp project is a research study to be conducted among
students and readers at the FAVL libraries. The goal is to research the impact that having a solar
lamp has on the reading habits and school work of students. The vast majority of villages with
FAVL libraries do not have electricity. Families generally have a single kerosene lamp used for
lighting and doing household chores at night. Students who wish to read or study at night must
be patient and wait until the lamp is free. Researchers leading the project would like to know if
the students improve their reading level and grades by having a solar lamp at their disposal.
FAVL is committed to gender issues. Our organization decided to produce a book about the life
of a professional working woman. The book titled “Professional Woman, I am a Mechanic” was
created to encourage young girls to follow the profession of mechanics, which is stereotypically
masculine. FAVL hopes to create a series on different type of professional women. The first
book is expected to be published in 2011 and several copies will be distributed throughout the
FAVL libraries.
Ghana
An important accomplishment of 2010 was the Sherigu Library renovation. FAVL supporters
may recall that the previous Sherigu library was destroyed by a strong storm that blew off the
roof of the building. The neighboring Catholic Church was kind enough to provide a temporary
facilty, and then donated an older building to be renovated with a combination of FAVL funds,
community funds, and support from the Municipal Assembly. In September 2010, the whole
7

8. library (ie. books, shelves, etc) moved into the new building. The library committee and the
community members are very happy that finally the library has moved into the new structure
which is said to be permanent place of the library.
During the months of August and September 2010, FAVL hosted reading camps in Sumbrungu,
Sherigu, and Gowrie-Kunkua libraries. Each village had three two-week camps, nine camps
total, with 20-27 5th form students participating in each. There were 200 participants in total.
Funding for the camps was generously provided by the Chen Yat-Sen Foundation.
The camps ran from Monday to Friday
beginning at 8:00 am with breakfast and
signing in, and continued until 3:00 pm
with a pause for lunch. The camps were
managed by a staff of four counselors
which consisted of one teacher, the
librarian for the local community library,
one researcher and one coordinator.
Camp staff organized all camp activities
which centered on improving students’
reading abilities, stimulating inquisitive
learning and helping students to interact
with their peers in a productive manner.
A locally hired food preparer, from each
village, prepared breakfast and lunch for
the students every day. All children were given a camp T-shirt. These were highly prized, as the
design on the front of the shirt showed children reading and had a slogan about the importance of
reading.
FAVL’s summer reading camps addressed a serious issue facing Ghana: extremely low levels of
literacy, especially in rural areas. With a low literacy level and a school system that is
overcrowded and understaffed, Ghana struggles to teach its children how to read. FAVL’s 2010
reading camps enabled 200 school students to spend a week of their summer break practicing the
reading skills that are not sufficiently nurtured at school. While educating the students was of
primary importance, making sure the kids had fun was another important goal, in order to show
them that reading and writing are not just chores to be done at school but valuable skills that they
will be able to enjoy for life.
Each camp was similarly run and consisted of numerous activities revolved around reading,
writing, educational formations, verbal discussions, song, dance, arts and crafts, and games.
Improving the reading and comprehension levels of students is one of the camps’ main goals;
therefore, reading activities took up a large percentage of camp time. This included a core of
three designated 45 minute reading periods per day and other reading enhancement activities
such as workshops, phonic exercises and reading games in between designated reading periods.
In addition to reading and writing activities, numerous educational formations and discussions
were held, focusing on proper hygiene, malaria prevention, properly caring for the library and its
books, keeping latrines clean, succeeding in school and respecting others. The children actively
8

9. participated and exchanged their thoughts and ideas with their peers. Creativity and imagination
are not reinforced by teachers in Ghana’s schools, so camp facilitators used arts and crafts to
help develop these concepts. At the beginning, students would all draw the same things as their
peers. However, as the camps progressed more and more of the students became comfortable and
confident to draw other things.
With the money received from the Chen Yat-Sen Foundation, FAVL was also able to create a
camp manual, reading camp workbooks and strategies for reading booklets for all camp
participants. These booklets were of great help to campers not only in improving their reading
skills but helping them to track
their progress throughout the
camps. In addition, more than 250
books (150 by African authors
from bookstores and suppliers in
Accra) were purchased as reading
materials for the students and then
given to the FAVL libraries once
the camps were over.
The 2010 reading camps benefited
from the help and experience of
two volunteers from America. The
volunteers showed the students
and facilitators new activities and
games, such as engaging reading
activities, crossword puzzles, how
to make and write a book from
scratch, and creating paper
necklaces. The volunteers shared
with local teachers new techniques and learning tools for enhancing literacy learning in the
classroom. “Pupils and teachers have acquired accurate and required skills in reading, writing,
listening and speaking,” said Felix, a teacher who helped at Sherigu’s camp. “Different
methodologies were adopted in the reading program that helped intensify the student’s
understanding and interest.”
Unfortunately, Ghana’s already low literacy percentage drops even more at the village level.
Overcrowded classrooms and a lack of resources make it difficult for teachers to work with
students who are struggling to read and they therefore fall behind. This was evident at the
camps. The vast majority of the campers read at below average reading levels while others were
completely illiterate. With a small camp size of 20 to 27 students, camp facilitators were able to
work one on one with the students, working on each of their strengths and weaknesses. The
facilitators and volunteers on-site said they witnessed firsthand improvements with the campers.
They saw not only improvement in the reading levels of the campers but an increase in
confidence and self-esteem, especially among the young girls.
This year’s presence of both Ghanaian and American camp facilitators had a positive impact on
9

10. the camps. All parties benefited: the Ghanaian camp leaders learning new activities and
techniques and the Americans learning about an entirely different culture and way of life. Of
course, the greatest benefit was toward the campers, who were given an educational, fun and
diversified learning experience.
A research study measuring the effect that different treatments have on reading behavior was
carried out by two FAVL volunteers throughout the course of the reading camps. To test this,
they randomly assigned different reading treatments across camp days for each location and
camp order to see the impact they had on the students’ reading output during their in class
reading periods and take home reading. They implemented two different treatments types; the
first being what types of books encourage students to read and the second being what types of
reading activities encourage students to read. They measured the effect of these different
treatments through recording the total number of books read per child per day controlling for
previously established reading ability, book level, age and gender. The results of the study are
currently being analyzed.
The participation and discussion that occurred at the end of the camps gave many ideas of
improvement for next year. One idea is to bring in literacy teachers to help reinforce the basic
foundations of reading. Ideas such as this would help further maximize the productivity,
efficiency and improvement of reading levels of students at the camps.
In other news, Gowrie – Kunkua library saw some active support by the community in 2010. On
the 23rd on December, 2010 the youth which include the student of Gowrie – Kunkua came out in
great numbers to clean the surrounding of the community library to show how much they love
and cherish the library in their community. This was witnessed by the Regional Coordinator who
was going for his usual visit and to his surprise met the community cleaning the library. The
cleaning last 2 hours and it include dusting of the books, shelves, clearing the surrounding etc.
Community members sent a delegation to CESRUD Director and FAVL board members to
express their sincere thanks to board for the establishing a library in the Gowrie – Kunkua
community and also organising a Reading Camp during the holidays for the kids. In their
appreciation a goat was given to the Director of CESRUD and two chickens for the Regional
Coordinator for the Christmas and New Year. They pledged their support, commitment, and
dedication to FAVL and CESRUD board members.
In Sumbrungu, during the Christmas holidays the students of Sumbrungu met to organize their
executive election and decided to elect the libraries’ Regional Coordinator as the president of the
union. His duties will among others be: linking up students to the library, Promoting Reading
Culture in the community etc. The Regional Coordinator, AMIKIYA ALIGIRE LUCAS who
was also a past student of Bolgatanga Polytechnic was awarded by the National Secretariat of the
Association of HND Secretaryship and Management Student (AHSMAS) as the best president of
the year. Amikiya Aligire Lucas who just completed Higher National Diploma in Secretaryship
and Management Studies was the president of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic Chapter of the
Association. The award took place at Kumasi in the Asenti Region of Ghana.
Amikiya Aligire Lucas also received a book donated by Ghana Library board through the Upper
East Regional Librarian. This was to show the concern the Ghana Library Board have for the
10

11. community libraries in the Region. Lucas was trained by the regional librarian and has since
worked closely with the librarian.
A native of Sumbrungu who is the author of Sumbrungu Survival At All Costs, Mr. Ayinibisah
Ayelah who also lives in United States was at home (Sumbrungu) and took time to visit the
Sumbrungu library. Ayinibisah was so happy about the effort made to establish a library in the
community. He spent some time visiting the library and checking the type of books the library
have. He visited the library the second time and donated one of his books to the library. He
promised to give his support to the library.
The Regional Coordinator also travelled to the Volta Region to train and solve some library
problems in the community library establish by Marilyn Deer in Jordan Nu.
Tanzania
The Chalula library, in Tanzania, has continued with a partnership with a non-government
organization named PEN (Poverty Eradication Network) Trust to help support the Chalula
library. The founders of PEN Trust, Andrea Wall and Mugwe ABC Athman have conducted
monthly supervision visits to Chalula. Daily visits to the library range between 20 and 30
students. The librarians conduct a weekly story hour session, reading from popular children’s
books.
Uganda Community Library Association (UgCLA)
The Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA) was offered a grant by Pockets of
Change for the purpose of (1) promoting children’s literacy in Uganda by making locally
purchased children’s books available through libraries, (2) developing the capacity of member
libraries to initiate programs for children, and (3) assessing the effectiveness of such an
approach. The grant helped UgCLA to purchase and distribute a packet of 84 books to ten
different libraries, to run three workshops about ways of using children’s books, and to make
visits to those libraries that applied for books as well as follow-up visits to most of the recipients.
All the libraries that received books were asked to make an oral report of their activities in the
final project workshop, and all were also asked to submit a written report.
The first workshop was held on 26th-28th January 2010 at Kabubbu Conference Centre. There is a
well established community library at Kabubbu that is a member of UgCLA, so sessions could
be held in the library and reference made to the books. The workshop was comprised of six 90-
minute sessions (two each morning and afternoon), while the final afternoon was devoted to the
Annual General Meeting.
During the first session the participants had an opportunity to see and discuss the books
purchased for the project. Five tables were set up with one of the sub-sets of books and a
facilitator appointed by UgCLA at each one. The participants formed groups, which moved
around the tables answering the following questions on each sub-set of books:
• Who, in the library setting, would find the books useful?
• What could the librarians do to promote their use among the readers?
11

12. • Which item would be discarded from the set, assuming one had to be, and why?
The remaining sessions for that day were devoted to reading aloud. The participants watched
while an experienced children’s librarian and then an experienced teacher read to children of
different ages and demonstrated ways of encouraging the children to engage with the story that
they had heard. Then participants read to one another, using books from the set that UgCLA had
purchased for the Project, and some of them demonstrated to the group as a whole. Finally,
participants discussed ways of displaying books to encourage children to read them and of the
kinds of program that could be organized in libraries such as reading clubs, reading competitions,
and outreach activities which involve taking the books to the community.
The first session of the following day
focused on ways of getting adults involved
in reading with children. A representative
from Ka Tutandike, an NGO that is closely
affiliated to UgCLA, described its work on
a literacy project called READ (Read Enjoy
And Discover) with three schools in
Kampala district. The project involves
setting up READ committees in the schools
and working with teachers, pupils and the
parents to ensure an enabling environment
to improve the reading culture among the
stakeholders. Then representatives of three
member libraries, Kabubbu Community
Library, the Kitengesa Community Library near Masaka, and the URLCODA Community
Library at Lokotoro in Arua District, made presentations on projects they had implemented. The
Kabubbu library had produced a book comprised of stories that children collected from their
parents and then retold to the librarians, who wrote them down. At Kitengesa the local women’s
group were learning about activities that they could carry out with their children, including
reading aloud from books that the women themselves translated from English into Luganda. The
URLCODA project was (and is) an intergenerational literacy program attended by generally non-
literate adults and children who have had a little schooling but have dropped out of school. The
URLCODA librarians encourage people to come by providing a variety of games and have
developed techniques for encouraging the two age groups to exchange knowledge and skills.
In the final working session participants received copies of the cover sheet that UgCLA had
devised for the proposals that they were invited to write for the Children’s Book Project. They
were asked to consider the following questions:
• Why does the community need these books? How will the community benefit from
them?
• How will the library use the books to ensure the community benefits? For instance,
regular story time and programmes involving adults.
• How will the librarian know that the community has benefited and has changed from
having these books?
12

13. It was pointed out that planning with the beneficiaries was important; perhaps the librarian could
organize focus groups and develop programs in collaboration with them. One possibility would
be to take small children's books and translate them into the local language. Participants were
told that numbers should be given, of library members, for example, and of expected program
participants, and that methods of evaluating the proposed programs should be included.
Workshop participants were told that proposals should be submitted by e-mail on or before
February 28. In the event, not enough proposals had been received by that date, so UgCLA
extended the deadline to March 15. Sixteen proposals came in by then, of which UgCLA
forwarded fourteen to Pockets of Change for evaluation; two were eliminated because they were
asking for books that were not actually on offer. Pockets of Change then chose ten libraries to
receive the books, namely:
1. Bugiri Community Library, Bugiri District
2. Bushikori Christian Centre, Mbale District
3. Busolwe Public Library, Butaleja District
4. Busongora Rural Information Centre , Kasese District
5. Gayaza Family Learning Resource Centre, Wakiso District
6. Kitengesa Community Library, Masaka District
7. Kyabutaika Community Library, Nakasongola District
8. Mpolyabigere RC RICED Centre, Namutumba District
9. Queen of Heaven Yumbe, Yumbe District
10. Suubi Community Library, Masaka District
All these libraries, except for Bushikori and Queen of Heaven, had been visited by Kate Parry in
2009. She visited Bushikori, together with other libraries in the Eastern Region, on April 20-21,
2010, and although she was not able to visit Yumbe before the decision had to be made, she had
met the leader of the women’s group that runs the library when she visited Arua District in
January. Thus UgCLA knew all the ten libraries and could confidently endorse Pockets of
Change’s selection.
UgCLA planned to summon the winners to a meeting in April, but in March the US Embassy
invited the organization to nominate up to thirty people to attend a workshop that it itself was
organizing in April on early childhood literacy. UgCLA decided therefore to nominate a
representative from every library that had submitted a proposal (including one whose proposal
had arrived too late to be considered) and from a couple of libraries that had recently joined, as
well as individuals who had helped UgCLA by facilitating sessions on working with children.
Arrangements were made with the Embassy personnel to announce the winners and distribute the
books at the end of the day and the additional sets of books were purchased a few days before the
workshop date.
The workshop was held at the US Embassy in Kampala on April 28 and was attended by some
30 people, including a representative of each library listed above and of all but one of the other
libraries that had submitted proposals. The facilitator was Valerie Wonder, a consultant and
community programming specialist for the Seattle Public Library. Ms Wonder corresponded
13

14. with Kate Parry beforehand so was able to tailor her presentation to UgCLA’s needs. She
focused on children’s experience before they attend school and emphasized the importance of
basic activities such as naming, rhyming, telling stories, and playing with books. She gave plenty
of opportunities for discussion, using children’s books that she had brought for the purpose.
At the end of the workshop, Kate Parry explained how the winners of the Children’s Book
Project packages had been selected and announced their names. The books were distributed and
the winners stayed behind for thirty minutes or so for a briefing on what information they would
need to keep track of and report on: activities organized, with stories and anecdotes related to
them, and numbers of participants, of general visits to the library, and of books borrowed where
relevant. The librarians were asked particularly to try to assess how things changed as a result of
the books.
Soon after this workshop, Kate Parry was able to visit the Bugiri and Mpolyabigere libraries, as
well as Kitengesa. In June she went to Yumbe, and in July she visited Busongora, Kitengesa
again, Suubi, Gayaza, and Kyabutaika. Visitors from the US visited Molyabigere and Bushikori
on UgCLA’s behalf. UgCLA’s coordinator, Grace Musoke, is to visit these libraries and
Busolwe as well but has not been able to do so before submission of this report; she has,
however, had a meeting with the managers of Mpolyabigere and Busolwe.
The second workshop that UgCLA itself organized took place again at Kabubbu on July 11-13.
The first two sessions were devoted to reports by the representatives of the Children’s Book
Project libraries on what they had done with the books. Then during the next two sessions the
participants helped to address a deficit that UgCLA had identified when making the purchases:
there are few picture books available in Uganda that are appropriate for rural African children.
So on this occasion photographs of everyday scenes were provided and the participants
suggested how they could be used to make such books (the suggestions were geared to Uganda’s
new thematic curriculum for primary schools so that the books might actually be saleable). The
participants also suggested captions to go with the photographs. The photographs and captions
have since been collated, edited, and put into powerpoint presentations, which will be sent to
Fountain Publishers for consideration.
The following day, the librarians at Kabubbu made a presentation on how books, especially
foreign ones that presented linguistic and cultural difficulties, could be made accessible to
Ugandan children. They demonstrated the supporting materials that could be made, such as word
cards and story summaries, and called on volunteers among the participants to perform a song
and drama based on a story. Participants then discussed in groups the activities that they could
develop based on some of the CBP books. The final session of the workshop was spent
discussing games, and everyone participated in more singing and dancing.
Attendance at the workshops was good, with 36 participants at the first one at Kabubbu, 30 at the
American Embassy (to which not all UgCLA libraries were invited), and 57 at the second
Kabubbu one. Participation in every case was enthusiastic: Valerie Wonder was particularly
impressed by how well the UgCLA librarians compared with another group of workshop
participants from NGOs and the Ministry for Education and Sports. Discussion at the two
Kabubbu workshops was, if anything, even more lively since there was more group work built
14

15. into the activities. That the workshops were appreciated is indicated by the high attendance
figures, even though all participants had to pay some of their own transport costs, as well as by
the increasing numbers of libraries seeking to join UgCLA (see below). There is clear evidence,
too, that the participants took note of what they learned at the workshops and acted on it: two
libraries that Kate Parry visited after the first workshop showed her with pride how they were
displaying books as suggested during the discussions, and after the second Kabubbu one several
commented on how valuable the sessions by the Kabubbu librarians had been and how
interesting and inspiring they had found the reports on the Children’s Book Project. A couple of
libraries have also asked for materials on the Family Literacy Project that was described during
the first workshop.
As for the packet of books, all who saw the books were enthusiastic about them, especially about
the fact that, being purchased locally, they addressed local interests. When asked in the first
workshop which should be discarded if necessary, they could not agree on any because, they
said, all of them were good. There were certain books, however, that emerged as clear favorites
in the session when the participant libraries reported on their project activities:
Cheche and Taka
Go Away Boys
Gum on the Gate
How Friends Became Enemies
It Has Never Happened
Barack Obama
Of these, Cheche and Taka, Gum on the Gate, and How Friends Became Enemies are traditional
African stories presented in English, Go Away Boys is a story about how three girls dealt with the
boys who were troubling them, It Has Never Happened is a true story of a Ugandan’s experience
during the regime of Idi Amin, and Barack Obama is a biography written for children of the
present US President.
The libraries that received CBP packets are different from one another and used the books in
different ways, so it is necessary to report on each individually. The accounts below are based on
the observations made during visits, the oral reports presented during the July workshop, and the
written reports that the participating libraries submitted.
1. Bugiri Community Library
This is a small library established little more than a year ago. Its premises consist of a shop
front with a verandah outside, and for furniture it has only one small table, a bookshelf, two
benches, and a couple of chairs. It had only about eighty books before the Children’s Book
Project, so the project distribution has more than doubled its stock.
As soon as the books arrived the library coordinator and the children themselves advertised
their presence. The result was a rapid increase in the numbers of children visiting the library:
whereas the average attendance before was fewer than twelve children each day, after the
books arrived it was more than thirty.
15

16. Children used the books only in the library. They read them on their own, choosing which
they wanted; they read them aloud in organized sessions to the whole group; they translated
them as they were being read aloud; and they discussed the pictures, naming the objects
shown in English. Adults, however, were allowed to borrow the books so that they could take
them home and read them with their children. Some adults are doing this regularly, but the
coordinator’s report does not give numbers. Children, he claims, “love reading hence the
reading culture has improved.”
The challenges that the coordinator reports are, first, lack of space and limited seats, which
they manage by using the verandah and providing mats for the children to sit on. They also
need books in the local language, Lusoga, which is a real problem since not much is
published in this language. The most serious challenge is that library lacks funds for staff
salaries, so it is relying at present on voluntary labor; the coordinator himself administered
this project, taking time from his small business in order to do so.
2. Bushikori Christian Centre
This is a much better established institution with a clinic, an administrative block, and a
library, and there is a primary school called Joshua Primary School next door which is under
the same management. The library is in one-room brick building with a corrugated iron roof.
It is clean and brightly painted, thanks to the work of a series of US volunteers, including a
Peace Corps volunteer who participated in the Children’s Book Project. It looks well stocked,
but all the books that were there in mid April were donated from the United States, and
though they include some children’s books that are popular, many of them are textbooks,
reference books, and English classics that are not at all appropriate. The library also houses
textbooks that belong to Joshua Primary School and at the time of this visit already had
children from the school coming on a regular basis to listen to stories read aloud.
The CBP books were the first that Bushikori had that were purchased in Uganda and
intended for African children. They were well advertised by the library management,
resulting in much greater interest in the library on the part of the center’s other staff. The
director of the center is quoted as saying the books “are very important because the pupils
can relate to the characters. These books will greatly support the reading culture we are
trying to promote at BCC. I am sure that you will find adults also enjoying these children’s
storybooks, for most of us have not seen books such as these. It’s really great.” Her
prediction was borne out: many teachers working at the center took to coming to the library
at break or lunch time to read the books.
The librarian used the books initially for story time with the children from Joshua Primary
School. The children responded enthusiastically and began coming to the library not only
during the scheduled class period but also during their free time, to the extent that the
librarian said she could hardly cope with the numbers. In addition, the librarian with the help
of the Peace Corps volunteer initiated a Partner School Program by which they contacted
fourteen nearby primary schools and invited them to become members of the library. Two
have so far paid their membership fees and have been allocated times when they can send
their children to the library. Once five schools have joined, the librarian and her assistant
intend to organize a meeting to explain the benefits of library membership.
16

17. They also organized activities based on reading for the children. The first was a “Mango Tree
Challenge” that took place during May: 25 students in P4 to P6 were invited to come to the
library to read on their own, and for each book that they read they got a “mango” on a paper
tree that was posted on the library wall; the name of the one with the most mangoes was to be
announced at the end of term and the student would receive a prize of a story book, a pen,
and a journal. The second activity was a spelling bee planned for June 28 to July 3, in which
45 students from P4-6 participated. The winner in each class would also receive a prize at the
end of the term.
The CBP has had a dramatic impact at Bushikori. The first beneficiaries are the children at
Joshua Primary School, the number of whom attending the library during their free time has
increased from ten to 30-40 every week. The library’s report quotes a couple of children:
Janet, who says, “I like coming to the library because the books are interesting and they are
helping me understand words,” and Moses, who states, “I am happy that we have a library at
school, because I can read books and learn new things. Before I did not like to read, but now
I like it.” The key to this enthusiasm is that the CBP has provided books that the children can
relate to. The project has also affected the Bushikori Christian Centre as a whole. According
to the library’s report, it has “inspired the staff to be more creative and innovative in
implementing activities … and … enabled us to change our prospective [sic] from one of
deficiency to optimism.” Certainly, its effect on the librarian was evident when she reported
on the project at Kabubbu; she was full of excitement and enthusiasm, whereas before the
volunteers who worked with her had complained that she lacked initiative. Finally, the wider
community is now taking a greater interest in the library: four new individual members have
been recruited, besides the two schools already in the partnership program. Given the short
time since they have received the books, it is evident that the staff of Bushikori Christian
Centre have done remarkable things with them.
The challenges that the library faces are directly related to this success. A major one is
shortage of space, which the library hopes to address by raising funds to build an extension;
and the librarian commented on the fact that it was difficult for her to handle the numbers of
children now coming to the library in their free time. The “Mango Tree Challenge” did not
work quite as well as hoped since children seemed to be more interested in getting mangoes
than in actually reading the books, but the library staff are addressing that by asking children
to sign up for the challenge and to present written reports on the books they read. It has
proved a little difficult to recruit partnership schools: there were costs involved in travelling
to the schools and printing out notices, so it was decided to ask for a subscription fee from
each school of 10,000 shillings (about $5). Only two schools had paid up by the time
Bushikori’s report was submitted, but, given the limitations on space and the librarian’s time,
this slow acquisition of partners may be a benefit rather than otherwise.
3. Busolwe Public Library
The Busolwe library is older than most UgCLA member libraries, having been founded in
the 1990s. It went through a long period of being little used, however, because it was staffed
only by volunteers who were not able to keep it open regularly, nor did they initiate outreach
programs. The library’s fortunes were turned round in 2008 when UgCLA negotiated a
17

18. partnership for it with two libraries in Greater Vancouver. These libraries raised funds for the
Busolwe one to employ a librarian, and he has been much helped in his work by volunteers
from the University of British Columbia.
Like other CBP libraries, the Busolwe library began by publicizing the books that it had
received and then organized four sets of activities around them. First, it made arrangements
with three neighboring primary schools to send children in P3 and P4 (equivalent of Grades 3
and 4) to the library for a scheduled story time lasting for 15 to 30 minutes. Teachers were
involved in reading and discussing the stories, and any parents who might be interested were
invited to participate, while the librarian and UBC volunteers helped by preparing story time
planning sheets for the teachers to use. Second, story times were arranged on Fridays and
Saturdays for children who were not yet in school. Third, the books were used for a school
reading club that meets every Thursday and involves two secondary level institutions as
partners; this club organized a competition on July 2 which, besides quizzes based on
magazines already in the library and on textbook material, included speeches on books that
the students had read. Fourth, the librarian worked with UBC volunteers at TASO (The AIDS
Support Organization) in Mbale to provide counseling to students at its partner institutions,
using the CBP books on HIV-AIDS.
The project has resulted in greater interest in the library on the part of children. Previously
about ten children would visit the library per day, but by July the number had increased to
25-30. Of these children, the majority were girls. The secondary school quiz also generated a
great deal of enthusiasm, and the librarian reports of the counseling that “it was a very
wonderful exercise” for him personally as well as for the students who participated. He also
asserts that “now some parents have started bringing their children to the library to read story
books,” though he does not give any numbers.
The challenges arising from the project have been, as for Bushikori, the library’s limited
space and the demands made on the librarian’s time. The library is located in two rooms in a
shop building that allows no space for expansion, nor is there any tree nearby that could be
used as shade for reading. The librarian is the sole full-time employee, although the UBC
volunteers are a great help, and now the grant from the British Vancouver libraries is nearly
finished there is a question as to how the librarian is to be paid.
4. Busongora Rural Information Centre (BRIC)
The Busongora Rural Information Centre is one of the Ruwenzori Information Centre
Network (RIC-Net) and joined UgCLA, together with RIC-Net itself, in 2009. Most RIC-Net
centers work with farmers’ groups to disseminate information about rural agricultural
opportunities and challenges, but the Busongora one is closely affiliated to another
organization called ORDISEF which has more interest in working with children. Before
taking part in the CBP, the center was already organizing children’s video shows every
evening in an attempt to discourage them from watching much less appropriate videos in the
nearby town of Kasese. It did not, however, have a collection of children’s books.
Thus the CBP has enabled the Busongora center to embark on a completely new range of
activities. First, the center’s director has been using the books as a basis for working on
18

19. reading and telling stories with children. He recruits the children each day by going in to the
room where the video is shown and asking any who want to come and “study” with him.
Most of them come, as Kate Parry and Margaret Baleeta witnessed when they observed one
of these sessions in July, and these children are then joined by many others, including very
young ones as well as older ones who are on their way home from school. During the session
that Kate Parry and Margaret Baleeta saw the children recited and enacted poems, listened to
and translated a story (into the two languages spoken in that area, Rutoro and Rukonjo), and
told stories themselves. Before the end of the session there were more than thirty children
present, which is apparently the norm for a weekday. At weekends about fifty children come.
The children are not invited to read the books on their own, but the books are kept in the
center’s reading room where adults can access them. The center is trying to maintain a
register of these visits, and although it is not kept systematically, for June 25th -30th forty
names were written down. Adults were now apparently asking for classes too, based on the
books and on what they hear of the children’s activities, so the center is looking to establish a
relationship with the government’s Functional Adult Literacy program.
The Director of Busongora is immensely enthusiastic about the project and is eager to
encourage such activities in other RIC-Net centers. If he succeeds in that, the CBP will have
had a dramatic impact on the whole Ruwenzori region. Even if he does not (and it might not
be appropriate for other information centers to divert their attention from the work they are
doing on agriculture), the CBP has been important for getting one of the RIC-Net group fully
involved in UgCLA and in work on children’s literacy.
The main challenge that the Director mentioned was the problem of handling very young
children during the story times. He has addressed this by forming a partnership with a
nursery school from which teachers come to take part in the sessions. Another challenge is
that the center has little capacity for maintaining records of its users: the register that they
have instituted of people who come to read the books is full of gaps. Nonetheless, the center
is doing impressive work, and given that it had no children’s books before, the CBP has
evidently had a significant impact.
5. Family Learning Resource Centre, Gayaza
This center was set up in 2009 by a man who was already involved in UgCLA since he is the
librarian of the Kabubbu Community Library (which did not get a CBP award). It consists of
one main resource center, located in a house that the organization owns, and five satellite
centers which work out of a church, a school, and people’s homes. The organization’s books
are kept at the main center and are lent out to the satellites as needed. Sessions for children
are held at all the centers (including the main one) at weekends, and the twelve facilitators
who work for the organization (on a voluntary basis) meet regularly to help and support one
another. The organization receives some support from a small UK charity called Project
Hope, and the facilitators are given training by the UK National Institute for Adult
Continuing Education.
Before receiving the CBP books the center had a collection of about 300, including some
primary school textbooks, books on religion, Obama’s Dreams of my father, and some
19

20. children’s books, all of them foreign. These were inadequate for the activities at the centers,
so the facilitators spent a lot of time making their own materials, such as posters and flash
cards, and had found it difficult to keep up. The significance of the CBP here, then, was that
it provided much more material for the facilitators to use.
The books are circulated among the centers, where they are read aloud, discussed, and
provide a basis for other activities such as drawing, retelling stories, and writing. The director
reports that the facilitators have become known in their villages and the children are “on look
out” for them “to read books.” When Kate Parry and an American visitor went to the main
center in August, it was striking how children began to appear as soon as they realized there
was some activity going on—and the facilitator reported that it was difficult to get them to go
away again after the visitors had left. At one of the satellite centers they also saw two
parents, sixteen children, a secondary school student volunteer, and a primary school teacher,
all of whom were reading CBP books.
It is clear that the Family Learning Resource Centre still does not have enough books for all
the work that it does, even though it has received a further donation from the Osu Children’s
Library Fund. Another challenge is that the books are getting worn out quickly, a problem
which the organizers are trying to minimize by requiring children to wash and dry their hands
before handling the books. Transporting the books to each center every week is a good deal
of work, and even the main centre has no furniture, though that can be addressed by
providing mats for the children to sit on. Despite these challenges, it seems clear that the
Resource Centre has developed a good model for working with young children and their
parents and that CBP has played an important role in helping it work effectively.
6. Kitengesa Community Library
This library is one of the best established in UgCLA, having been initiated as a box of books
in 1999, and having acquired its first building and a significantly expanded collection in
2002. By the time that the CBP was initiated the library had a stock of more than 3700
books; but many of these books, especially the locally purchased ones for children, had been
worn out with much reading. The library is well staffed, with a librarian, an assistant
librarian, and seven Library Scholars, that is, students at the secondary school next door
whose fees are paid out of library funds.
When the library began its main users were secondary school students, but since 2006 it has
been reaching out to children in primary schools. The first method of doing this was to
organize Children’s Days on Saturdays and Sundays to which teachers were invited to bring
their classes. The receipt of the CBP books provided an occasion for the library to expand
this program by making arrangements with two primary schools to send three classes each to
the library at different times during school hours; and a third school joined later. The books
were displayed on a table near the door of the library and the children were invited to pick
them up as they came in. The children read the books by themselves, but some of the Library
Scholars and volunteers were always there, together with the children’s teachers, to help
them with vocabulary difficulties.
Since each class comprises upwards of forty children, this arrangement means that the library
20

21. was serving more than 240 children from the two initial schools. Now, with the third school,
the number is much higher. The scheduled library periods are evidently popular: attendance
is high, and at the end of the day a number of children stay behind after they are free to go.
An average of about fourteen primary school pupils are also coming to the library on their
own every day, as opposed to only three or so before the project, and the Children’s Days,
which have become general open days for children, are continuing at weekends. Secondary
school students, too, especially those in Senior 1 and 2 (equivalent of Grades 8 and 9), are
reading the CBP books. Altogether, about 500 children are seeing the books each week.
The project has thus had a significant impact in encouraging children to read, even in a
library that was already well stocked. The effect on adults, though, may be at least as
important. The teachers in the neighboring primary schools are beginning to appreciate the
importance of children’s reading, and one has claimed that it has led to improved
performance on the part of his P6 pupils. The fact that library time is now on the school
timetable for three primary schools constitutes a major breakthrough.
Like the other participants in the CBP, the Kitengesa library is experiencing the problems of
success. Although the library has a new building, it is not big enough nor does it have enough
furniture for all the children that are now coming—although this problem will be alleviated
once it completes its present building project. And even though the library got all the books
covered with plastic before putting them into use, they are already showing signs of wear and
tear. Nonetheless, the CBP has been a valuable contribution to the library’s activities, and the
books will continue to provide pleasure to and improve the language skills of several hundred
children.
7. Kyabutaika Community Library
The Kyabutaika Community Library is another of the better established members of UgCLA.
The library was founded in 2002 and is housed in a substantial building with good furniture.
It also has a good stock of about 4000 books. Many of the books are on agriculture, health,
and politics, while others are foreign story books, but another, much smaller, set is locally
purchased children’s books similar to those distributed in the CBP.
The library did not, it seems, set up any special program in relation to the books, nor was it
successful in keeping the CBP books separate from those it already had of the same kind. But
the books were made available and their presence was advertised through radio
announcements as well as letters to schools and visits to churches and mosques. The books
proved very popular, especially It has never happened and Barack Obama, the readers being
primary and secondary school children as well as some adults.
The challenges reported were that there were too few books for the number of interested
readers, that the library had no distinct place in which to keep the books for this project, that
it had no appropriate furniture for young children (the tables and chairs are too high for them
to use), and students did not have any time during the school day in which to come and read.
This library’s response to the project was the least satisfactory in that it did not use the books
to initiate a particular activity—the director said that he had tried but the teachers had “let
21

22. him down.” Nonetheless, when Kate Parry visited in August, just after the term had ended,
there were many children there. The director reported a plan that he had developed but had
not yet implemented for having stories read on the local radio, for which he would use the
CBP books. If this program actually comes about it will be a powerful way of popularizing
reading.
8. Mpolyabigere Community Library
Mpolybigere RC RICED Project is a development association that serves and coordinates the
efforts of some twenty community groups and also has ties with a number of educational
institutions. Among other activities the organization disseminates information about and
administers tests for HIV-AIDS; it also organizes entertainment for teenagers. The library
serves as the center for all these activities, though as a library it is very modest: prior to the
CBP its collection consisted only of about 300 books, and the room in which they were kept
was too small for many people to read there. Through UgCLA, however, Mpolyabigere has
received a grant that has enabled it to expand its reading space significantly, and the CBP has
constituted a significant addition to its book collection.
Mpolyabigere used the books as the basis of a “box library”, adding to the CBP collection
summaries and translations in Lusoga that the project coordinators wrote themselves. This
box library was taken round on a weekly basis to twenty primary schools; since each school
has an enrollment of 300-500, the expectation was that the books would reach up to 10000
children. In the event, it proved necessary to keep the number of readers at each venue down
to 100 because with larger numbers books were getting lost; but even so the coordinators
report that nearly 1000 people were reached in the month of May. The visits with the book
box included opportunities for the children to retell and dramatize the stories and were
apparently extremely popular. In addition, when the books were not being taken out they
were available for people to read at the library. The library was kept open until 10 p.m. for
this purpose, and the coordinators estimated that 1500 people lived near enough to take
advantage of this. They do not, however, give figures of actual visits to the library.
The Mpolyabigere Library has been commendably proactive in giving people access to the
books. It has not been so successful in maintaining records of its activities: the report on the
project gives full figures of the schools visited and the numbers of people reached during
May, but otherwise no hard data are provided. However, the project is ongoing and more
information is promised. Meanwhile, our impression is that the library is doing splendid
work.
9. Suubi Community Library
Like Mpolyabigere, the Suubi library is part of a broader development project that includes
providing water tanks to primary schools, supporting a range of income-generating activities
for adults, and developing and demonstrating good agricultural practices. It is supported by
Development Plus Uganda and an Australian organization called Help Us Grow (HUG) and
is located in the village of Lubanda, twenty kilometers from Masaka Town in Kisekka Sub-
County. The whole organization and the library in particular are new: when Kate Parry
visited in July 2009 the library room had only just been built and was completely empty,
while work was continuing on the other buildings. A year later, however, the buildings were
22

23. complete, a demonstration garden had been set up, and the library was furnished with a
couple of tables, a few chairs, and a bookcase holding some 300 books.
The CBP books were kept in this bookcase, separately from the others in plastic magazine
holders. They had been divided according to level and their titles had been entered in a
register of all the library’s books (they were the first ones in the register, which probably
does not mean that they were the first ones the library got but it may mean that getting the
books induced the people running the library to initiate the register). As a result of the CBP
the project managers invited two primary schools to send fifteen children to the library twice
a week. The children were from different classes ranging from P1 to P6 and were grouped in
levels according to their reading ability so that they could be given appropriate material.
Until the end of June the children were looked after by visiting Australian volunteers, but by
July the library had recruited a librarian to take on this responsibility. The children read
individually and listened to stories read aloud; they translated the stories that they heard into
Luganda and wrote down the English vocabulary with Luganda equivalents. Sometimes they
enacted the stories, as in the case of The Decorated Letters, which the librarian said was a
favorite. Another favorite was I Will Not Fail, but the librarian did not remember any of the
titles mentioned in the reports of the other libraries as being particularly popular.
Suubi’s director reports that the selected children gained much more confidence as readers
and improved greatly in their ability to understand the reading materials, as assessed by the
volunteers. Teachers’ attitudes have also been changed, apparently, by the project: at first
they were dubious about the merits of sending children to the library, but now they have
become enthusiastic. Parents are likewise happy that their children have opportunities to
read: one old man had stopped one of the Centre staff to tell him, with pride, that his
daughter in P2 was now reading newspapers.
The challenges in administering the project were, first, that the Australian volunteers who
worked on it had difficulty communicating with the children and the children tended to be
inhibited with them; second, because the books covered a wide range of topics and there was
only one copy of each, the volunteers found it hard to keep track of what each child was
reading; third, and most difficult, was the fact that sometimes many more children would
come than the selected fifteen, making it even harder to maintain the tracking system.
The plan now is to invite a different set of schools to participate in the coming term; and the
Suubi Centre staff are discussing ways of developing formal partnerships with schools to
enable them to borrow books. The prospects for sustaining the project are good since the
center already has good relationships with neighboring primary schools and now has a
librarian who can administer it. Arrangements have been made through UgCLA for this
librarian to go to Kabubbu and Kitengesa for training.
10. Queen of Heaven, Yumbe
Queen of Heaven is a parish in Yumbe Town in the far northwest of Uganda, and the name
was adopted by the women’s group that runs the library together with other projects. It is a
new member of UgCLA, having been brought in by URLCODA (see above) which
encourages and coordinates all the libraries in the West Nile Region. Of the libraries that
23

24. participated in the CBP it is the only one that has not submitted a report; when asked for it
the group’s leader explained that she had been having problems with e-mail. Kate Parry did
visit the project, however, and the librarian attended the workshop in July and gave an oral
report.
When Queen of Heaven was established, it was given a classroom at a private primary school
called St Daniel’s where the women held their meetings and kept their property—sewing
machines, hairdressing equipment, and cooking utensils. The group, comprising twenty
women, meets regularly here to tell stories and develop educational drama performances, but
before their participation in the CBP they had hardly any books. The book packet received
through the project transformed them into a library—the first one in Yumbe District.
On receiving the books, the Queen of Heaven leaders informed the headmaster and teachers
of the school and then passed word on to all the women in the group. They set up a timetable
for the school classes, including the nursery class, to have story times in the library. The
young children had stories read to them, and they developed a “drama” based on one of them,
while the older children read more on their own. The story books were in high demand,
apparently, and one child had stolen the one on Obama—fortunately it was retrieved.
Apart from this case of theft, the library has faced other challenges in administering the
project. The story times are managed by a teacher and two students, and they often have
difficulty getting the children to leave the room when the allotted time is over. There are not
enough books and, in particular, there is great need for more picture books. Queen of Heaven
feels that it needs its own library building, rather than just a primary school classroom, so it
knows that it must write more proposals to raise the necessary funds.
Given the complete absence of such books, not only in the school but in the whole District,
the CBP has clearly had a significant impact. Queen of Heaven has provided no figures, but
there is now a library where there was none before, and children at St Daniel’s school can
have the entirely new experience of reading story books.
This account shows great variation among the ten libraries both in terms of their general
characteristics and in the specific uses that they made of the books. In every case, however,
except possibly in that of Kyabutaika, this rather small set of books has had a significant impact,
whether in bringing increasing numbers of children to the libraries or in convincing adults in the
community that children’s reading is both important and valuable. The project has also had an
impact well beyond the ten libraries that received the books. All those who attended the first
workshop had a concrete focus and a specific set of books to guide their thinking about
programming for children. Those who attended the second, at the US Embassy, were exposed to
new ideas about early childhood literacy and were rewarded for the interest they had displayed in
writing a proposal. The third workshop (that is the second one directly organized by UgCLA)
enabled all the library managers to hear about how the books had been used and thus to see how
diverse programs for children can be and how much potential there is for organizing them.
Capacity building of this kind is an essential aspect of UgCLA’s mission, and the Children’s
Book Project has been highly successful in that regard.
24

25. This is not to say that there have been no challenges. Chief among these has been the inadequate
reporting on the part of the libraries: Queen of Heaven failed to deliver a written report at all,
while most of the others were brief and definitely did not do full justice to the activities that the
libraries had carried out; even the reports that were richest in detail did not give the figures that
are necessary for an objective evaluation. UgCLA must continue to work on training its members
in this regard, and it is also essential that projects have built into them methods of evaluation that
do not depend solely on written reports. In this case, the presentations made at the final
workshop as well as the visits made to the participating libraries proved invaluable sources of
information.
A second challenge was to get people to submit proposals in the first place. UgCLA has run two
such competitions in the past, and those who wrote proposals and did not succeed were easily
discouraged. Consequently, a number of the representatives at the first workshop confided to
UgCLA Board members that they did not think it worthwhile to write a proposal since they knew
they would not win anything. This problem was addressed, first, by extending the deadline for
the proposals and sending out special messages to libraries such as Busongora that had not been
represented at the workshop. Second, the opportunity to invite all the applicants to the American
Embassy workshop was extremely valuable—they all received something for their pains so will
be more ready to submit proposals in future. The lessons that UgCLA draws from this aspect of
the experience are, first, that timetables for competitions should always allow time for extending
the initial deadline (though of course the libraries should not be informed of this), second, that
some means should always be sought of rewarding libraries for submitting proposals even when
the proposals are not good enough to win the specific award in question, and, third, that the
association should seek more means of teaching proposal writing skills so that library managers
can write them not only more successfully but also more easily.
The greatest challenge of all, however, has been the incredibly rapid growth that UgCLA has
experienced since the CBP was initiated. When plans for the project were finalized in December
2009, the association had 42 member libraries; by the time the final reports were submitted in
August 2010, it had 67. This expansion has made the workshops more expensive than anticipated
because there were more participants to support, and it has strained UgCLA’s capacity to
supervise the project because of the need to visit new member libraries and/or to meet with their
managers. This challenge is welcome, however, because it is a product of success: the
enthusiasm of community leaders in Uganda to set up libraries and to join the association
suggests strongly that a project such as the CBP, small as it is, is remarkably effective in
encouraging people at the local level to initiate and develop community libraries.
Everyone involved with UgCLA is pleased with the way the CBP has worked out and is most
grateful to Pockets of Change for supporting the project. All the libraries hope that POC will
consider taking the project to a second phase from which more of them can benefit. UgCLA’s
Board would also welcome such a second phase, though in order to administer it the association
would have to appoint someone—probably the librarian of one of the ten first phase libraries—to
act as field officer and take on the responsibility of carrying out the visits; and that person would
have to be paid. It will also not be possible to run a second series of workshops devoted
exclusively to working with children’s books; on the one hand, the association is too big for
national workshops to be efficient, and on the other, UgCLA is moving on to new projects that
25

26. call for training in different areas. Nonetheless, the children’s books that POC has enabled
UgCLA to distribute have had a significant impact, and there is every reason to believe that they
would have a comparable impact if distributed to other libraries, especially ones whose
representatives participated in the CBP workshops. UgCLA therefore considers that a second
phase of the CBP would be worthwhile if Pockets of Change were interested in moving in that
direction and would do its utmost to ensure that such a second phase is as successful as the first
has been.
26

27. Appendix 1: About Friends of African Village Libraries
Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL) helps villagers in rural Africa set up small libraries
where children and adults can read stories, novels, newspapers, non-fiction, poetry, and history.
Libraries empower people by enabling access to information and fostering habits of reading and
critical thinking. Sustainable and equitable development depends on a well-informed citizenry
capable of using knowledge effectively. Numerous studies suggest that improved literacy is
correlated with higher incomes and reduced child morbidity and mortality. The dearth of books
in rural Africa means that an effective way to deepen literacy and disseminate information is
being neglected.
FAVL’s mission is to establish small libraries that will serve entire communities – from students
and teachers at secondary schools through children who have not yet started school to adults who
may have had little education at all. In this way, FAVL hopes to complement the efforts of
governments and international organizations in their response to the Education for All initiatives
of the Millennium Development Goals. As those efforts provide more opportunities for
schooling, FAVL’s activities provide more opportunities for reading; and so the literacy skills
that are taught and learned in school can develop into literacy practices that both feed the
imagination of individuals and address the development needs of their communities.
Since our founding as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2001, FAVL has established and
successfully operated ten village libraries in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Seven libraries are in the
province of Tuy in southwestern Burkina Faso, and three libraries are in Upper East region,
Ghana. In 2007, FAVL began operating in Uganda and Tanzania by partnering with the newly
founded Uganda Community Libraries Association, supporting the already well-established
Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda, and assisting in initiating a village library in Mvumi,
Tanzania. FAVL typically funds the refurbishment and maintenance of a locally donated
building for use as a library, pays for initial and periodic training of librarians, pays the salary of
the librarian (equivalent to one-half the salary of a primary school teacher), funds initial and
ongoing purchases of local books by African authors, and ships appropriate donated books from
the United States. In some cases FAVL equips libraries with solar panels permitting evening
reading hours. When FAVL establishes a village library, it requests a significant contribution
from the village community. Usually this means the donation of an old building in the village
center that is suitable for conversion for use as a library. Providing this concrete resource
involves village residents in negotiations and discussions about the role and importance of a
library. Village leaders then have a stake in the successful operation of the library, and leaders
active in obtaining the building often become the core of the village library committee. This
committee is entrusted with overall and day-to-day supervision of the library. Libraries and
books belong to the village where the library is located. FAVL partners, to the extent possible,
with local non-profit organizations and village committees, and these oversee day-to-day library
operations.
The libraries that are managed by FAVL typically make available between 1,000 and 2,000
books suitable for pre-school and primary school children, secondary school students, and
literate adults. A paid librarian operates the library for 20 hours or more each week. The libraries
are open to the public, and in some cases subscribers have the right to take home books for two
weeks after paying a very modest annual fee. In Burkina Faso the fees are $.20 for children and
27

28. students, $.40 for village residents, and $.60 for government officials per year; librarians have
discretion to give out free memberships to children whom they believe do not have the financial
means to become subscribers.
FAVL retains control over the funds it donates for library operations and construction, and
conducts regular monitoring to minimize the risk of misappropriation and waste. FAVL requires
monthly or quarterly financial reports prepared by the librarian and local library oversight
committee and conducts regular audits of library accounts and operations. A supervisor visits
libraries regularly (at least once a month) with announced and unannounced visits. FAVL
officers visit the libraries at least once a year, and FAVL coordinates interns (university students
and graduates from the United States and Europe) to conduct extended residences in villages
with FAVL libraries.
Survey research findings from Burkina Faso indicate that reading of books among 10th graders
has doubled (from six to 12 books per year, on average) in villages with FAVL libraries
compared with villages without libraries. Ethnographic research in Uganda indicates similar
positive impact of the Kitengesa Community Library.
Research results, annual newsletters, and further information about FAVL are available on the
FAVL website: http://www.favl.org.
28

29. Appendix 2: Number of subscribers, books checked out and library
visits for each library in Burkina Faso
29

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32

33. Appendix 3: Income and expenses for 20090 and 2010
FAVL budget for 2009 and 2010 Jan - Dec 09 Jan - Dec 10
Ordinary Incom e/Expense
Incom e
4 · Contributed support
4010 · Indiv/business contribution 81,832.36 91,317.47
4012 · Study Abroad RWA program 61,162.00 62,737.00
4013 · Corporate/business grants 50.00 780.00
4014 · Foundation/trust grants 11,300.00 18,610.00
4015 · Nonprofit organization grants 6,586.00 9,836.61
4 · Contributed support - Other 0.00 3,000.00
Total 4 · Contributed support 160,930.36 186,281.08
Total Incom e 160,930.36 186,281.08
33

34. FAVL budget for 2009 and 2010 Jan - Dec 09 Jan - Dec 10
Expense
7200 · Salaries & related expenses
7220 · Salaries & w ages - other 0.00 136.00
Total 7200 · Salaries & related expenses 0.00 136.00
7500 · Other personnel expenses
7550 · Tem porary help - contract 500.00 12,000.00
Total 7500 · Other personnel expenses 500.00 12,000.00
8100 · Non-personnel expenses
8101 · Adm inistrative Expenses in US
8105 · Bank Fees 372.49 784.27
8107 · Paypal fee 139.33 181.36
8110 · Supplies 340.48 177.87
8115 · Office Softw are and Com puter Su 1,458.79 565.33
8130 · Telephone & telecom m unications 102.22 63.07
8140 · Postage, shipping, delivery 949.68 1,063.82
8141 · Postage & shipping books Africa 0.00 250.75
8142 · Postage & ship m tls to Africa 0.00 5.64
8145 · Money Transfer Fees 580.50 305.00
8170 · Printing & copying 3,608.84 1,824.20
8172 · Fundraiser expense (food, etc) 0.00 185.76
8101 · Adm inistrative Expenses in US - Other 60.00 60.00
Total 8101 · Adm inistrative Expenses in US 7,612.33 5,467.07
8100 · Non-personnel expenses - Other 0.00 865.93
Total 8100 · Non-personnel expenses 7,612.33 6,333.00
8193 · Transfer to FAVL Sierra Leone 4,836.40 0.00
8194 · Transfer to FAVL Uganda 11,721.00 16,000.00
8195 · Transfer to FAVL Tanzania 3,200.00 3,892.80
8196 · Transfer to FAVL Burkina 111,733.96 94,641.44
8197 · Transfer to FAVL Ghana 11,900.00 28,100.00
8198 · Transfers to non-FAVL Libraries 6,315.00 5,313.10
8199 · Books & Periodical 4 Libraries 2,627.50 2,650.27
8300 · Travel & m eetings expenses
8310 · Travel
8311 · Airfare 3,449.40 0.00
8314 · Meals 0.00 50.23
8310 · Travel - Other 1,000.00 0.00
Total 8310 · Travel 4,449.40 50.23
8320 · Conference,convention,m eeting 0.00 120.00
Total 8300 · Travel & meetings expenses 4,449.40 170.23
8500 · Misc expenses in Africa
8570 · RWA Program Expense 3,500.00 993.69
Total 8500 · Misc expenses in Africa 3,500.00 993.69
Total Expense 168,395.59 170,230.53
34