Give to the Max Day Benefits Sembabule

Give to the Max Day makes good on its goal!  Thanks to the generous support of our donors on Give to the Max Day last November, a container of books recently arrived in Sembabule, Uganda, to be distributed at a pair of schools.

Sembabule is a rural district in central Uganda that suffers from a literacy rate that is lower than Uganda's national literacy rate of 72% (2014). Since the majority of the population is under 15 years of age, this project focuses on the Kawanda C.O.U. Senior Secondary School and its related Primary School. The secondary school started in 2005, has 340 students, and has a single teacher in charge of a small library, where they are making efforts to promote a culture of reading among the students.

Books For Africa has a connection with Sembabule, since our board member Paul Musherure's wife, Shartsi, is from there. Though the couple has lived in Minnesota for 20 years, Shartsi has always had a passion to serve her community in Sembabule, participating in projects such as local radio, childhood education, health education and agriculture.

Shartsi connected with Kawanda C.O.U. Secondary School while in Uganda, and has worked with some of its students on her radio programs. When her husband Paul began learning about Books For Africa, Shartsi highlighed the poor conditions of the secondary and primary school libraries at Kawanda.

The principals at the primary and secondary schools are very excited to have books in their libraries, since the lack of access to books is a major barrier to building a reading culture.

View more pictures from Sembabule and the Kawanda schools on our slideshow below!