The Action in Africa Library
Transforming the Nakuwadde Community, One Book at a Time.
Unlike in many developed countries, there is minimal access to books in Uganda, and many primary schools do not have a school library. Kids do not get to read their first book until they are 13- or 14-years-old when they’re in secondary school. But we know the value of a strong reading culture; not only does it improve the academics of kids, but it also widens their general view of the world. That is why it has always been so important for us to improve the reading culture in Uganda by providing free access to all kinds of books at our community library.
The Action in Africa Library received a brand new look and feel after undergoing an extensive renovation in September. Now occupying our larger workshop space, the Library has new shelves, tables and chairs, all designed to make it more accessible and attractive for readers to browse and read their favorite books. The goal was to transform this space into a friendly and safe environment that fosters imagination and creativity, and it’s working! The library has already started attracting more visitors and students from the community to take advantage of the power of reading.
Before we set up our first community center in Uganda nearly 10 years ago, Action in Africa created the first community library in Nakuwadde. At the time, it was only the 6th public library in Uganda and remains the only public library in Nakuwadde today. When we opened our community center in 2015, we continued to house the community library, stocking it with more books by request, mostly from the students. This year, our library got an all-new amazing look, and we are excited to avail it to all the students.
One of our beloved library users is Namutyaba Sylvia, Sylvia is one of our special needs scholarship students, as she is both deaf and mute. As part of her scholarship, she gets extra tutorial classes at The Center. These classes with her sign language teacher are sometimes conducted from the Library. While at The Center, Sylvia says one of her favorite things to do is reading story books in the library. These storybooks open up a whole new world for her. For someone like Sylvia, these books are a way of communicating with the world and getting to learn the stories of people she may never be able to hear from.
But it is not just Sylvia that likes to use the library. Uganda recently reformed its lower secondary school curriculum. The new curriculum encourages research, and students are given tasks which they have to research and present projects in school, but because of the limited reading resources in many schools, it is difficult for the students to find the information they need. Many of them therefore come to our library and use the classroom textbooks that are available to do their school work.
Pictured here is an early version of Action in Africa’s library. Ugandan children typically do not have access to their first book until they are 13- or 14-years-old.
The Library is also vital for many of our other education programs, our collection of English textbooks is used in adult English classes, where older members of the community who did not have an opportunity to go to school are offered free English classes. Our collection of story books is also used in the reading sessions, where our facilitators together with the kids read books from the library. The library is a central component of our efforts to empower and educate the Nakuwadde community, and the new library furthers this effort by providing more space for this to be done.
At Action in Africa, we treat books like toys too. They are meant to be played with and can give kids an opportunity to explore the world way beyond their physical reach. Books build creativity, focus, and a general sense of awareness. Our library shall continue to be open to the public and remain a tool to transform the Nakuwadde community, one book at a time.
