This is a call for donations for a not-for-profit enterprise to supply students with books and literature to read and access at Kyambogo University in Kampala, Uganda. Students often have little to no money to spend on photocopies. Teachers rarely possess copies of novels, plays, short stories, or poems to hand out to large classes in secondary schools and universities. Thus, students fail to ever access the important books that will help shape their education, creativity, imagination, and future scholarship.
The student library at Kyambogo University is often crowded. Students clamor to find space to sit down. Books are usually old, faded, ripped, damaged, or out of date. Most students cannot borrow these books and take them out of the library because they have not paid tuition until the end of the semester. Many valuable books often disappear without a trace. In short, the system sucks.
As an English Language Fellow working in conjunction with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Georgetown University, and Kyambogo University in Kampala, I have seen a real lack of initiative to focus on the students and pre-service teachers I hope to influence. Students can barely write a proper paragraph in English because no one has taken the time to read their work. Teachers spend hours lecturing on short stories, novels and other works that students will never read.
At this time, I am asking for book donations only. I will have further information in the coming weeks.
~Matt
English Language Fellow
Kyambogo University
Kampala, Uganda
