1 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

Amayaaka Newsletter of the Lusoga Language Academic Board

Vol. II June 2013

Kidiki Village, Namwendwa Sub-county, Kamuli District receives library books

and materials worth over 10,000 British Pounds from Book Aid International UK.

Mpolyabigere Kidiki RC RICED Centre is one of the 10 libraries selected for the Transforming Community Libraries project II 2013 sponsored by Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA) and funded by Book Aid International UK. Each of the following libraries has received new children’s readers and textbooks worth 9,000 British pounds and an additional 1,000 British Pounds for refurbishment of the library rooms and purchase of relevant materials for the respective libraries. 1. Blessed Foster Family Foundation – Luanunda in Masaka District 2. Kitengesa Community Library- Kitengesa in Masaka District 3. Busongora Rural Information Centre – in Busongora Kasese District 4. Mpolyabigere Kidiki RC RICED Centre – in Kamuli District 5. Mpambara Cox Public Library- in Kabale Town 6. Bushikori Christian Centre Community Library – in Mbale District 7. Masese Child Development Centre – In Masese Jinja District 8. Access Knowledge Community Library – in Mukono District 9. The 6 Community Library - in Busia Town/ District 10. Bwera Information centre – in Bwera town; Although the library is located in one small village known as Kidiki, being the only library of its kind in

Nanwendwa and being next to Namwendwa town, its catchment area in terms of schools will be as wide

as follows: Bugobi Parents Primary School, Bugondha Butaaga, Bulogo Primary School, Butaaya Primary

School, Butaaya Primary School, Galinandha Primary School, Good parents' primary school, Green World

Junior School, Happy Times Preparatory Primary School, Kidiki Mixed Primary School, Kidiki parent's

primary school, Kinawampere Primary School, Kyeeya

Primary School, Makoka Primary School, Nalango

Primary School, Namwendwa Primary School, St Kizito

Namwendwa, St. Joseph Infant School, St. Jude Bulange

Primary School, St. Luke Bulogo Primary School, St.

Mulumba Kiseege Primary School, and Trust Nur. &

Primary School.

The Secondary Schools are: Green World College, Kidiki

Secondary School, Namwenda High Senior Secondary School, St. Peters Namwendwa Secondary School,

and Standard Central College Namwendwa.

According to Joseph Waibi, a Director at Kidiki parents’ Primary School, the low levels of literacy in most

parts of Busoga have resulted into high dropout rates, child abuse, early pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and

poverty on a large scale. With this library the school has been able to stand out as the best performing

school in the sub-county for nearly five years. This boost should make the performance even better for

Kidiki parents and all the neighboring schools.

2 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

Map of Kamuli district showing the location of the Library in Namwendwa Sub-County.

3 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

Since the announcement of the award, Kidiki Parents School has been a hive filled with anxiety, interest,

aspirations and promises. We have conducted open reading camps at the school since May 25 Africa

Day and the library is to open every day from 9:00AM until 9:00PM. Before delivering the books to the

school, the interest in reading was low key attracting mostly pupils in the host school. But, as soon as

the books were delivered, excitement rose high attracting even the children coming to the borehole to

collect water and those from the neighboring schools. We had a breathtaking event from June 1-3 when

an open air reading camp was held in the former freedom square which has now been renamed The

Reading Camp Site.

We have also commenced

refurbishment by cementing,

plastering and painting. This activity is being carried out by technical workers and pupils themselves, The

pupils have also started to paint pictures of their choice, mostly the Uganda flag, bicycles and cars to be

used in decorations and book illustrations. We have held five meetings with staff and stakeholders to

explain the ideas of the project and to encourage the parents and staff to let the children use the books

without undue hindrances. There is a terrible

culture of not wanting the books to get old and

therefore restricting their use. This has to be

overcome.

The librarian is recording the books but he lacks the

knowledge of accessioning the books. What we

have done is to stamp and record. According to our

budgets, we have procured items 1, 2, 3, and 50%

of 4 and 5. Once the painting and closing is done

we shall complete what is not done yet.

In our last meeting, we agreed to construct an additional door to make the head teachers office (former

library room) accessible to the public through the former "Freedom square" which has now been

renamed "The Reading Camp Site".

4 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

Comments from the users "This is amazing, long live ..." exclaimed the Head teacher after receiving the boxes of books. The Head

boy and Head girl on receiving the consignment on June 1st said, "They have brought us books, toys, a

large carpet and beautiful books. we must read until dark and pass in our exams."

Another pupil commented, "I want to read all these books." During this event, the pupils in and around

the school surged in to reach the carpet were the books were displayed by the school prefects. They sat

down for hours reading silently while others shared their stories and played with the toys. Even the day

scholars who had had no meal the whole day stayed until dawn.

Kamuli District Profile

Kamuli District is a district in southeastern Uganda about 150km from Kampala and Kamuli town is

situated 68km from Jinja while Kidiki in Namwendwa sub-county is about 35 Km along Kamuli Kaliro

road at a place popularly known as Mutukula. Like other Ugandan districts, Kamuli is named after its

‘chief town’. Kamuli District is bordered by Kayunga District to the west, Kaberamaido District and

Soroti District to the north, across Lake Kyoga. Kaliro District lies to the northeast and Iganga District lies

to the southeast of Kamuli District. Directly south of the district lies Jinja District. Administratively, the

district has 3 counties, 17 sub-counties, 1 town council, 104 parishes and 1293 villages (Zones). Kamuli

district has a land area of about 3,444 sq km, 835 sq km of water

and 27,909 hectares under forestation. The district had a population

of about 712,000 (2002 population census) with a population

density of 236 persons/km². Males comprise 40.5% of the

population and females make up 59.5%. The population growth rate

is estimated at 5.1% per year. In 2006, Kaliro District with a

population of 153,513 (2002), was split from Kamuli District to form

a separate district leaving 558,487 people in Kamuli District. It is

estimated that the population of Kamuli District has grown to about

831, 4000 people (UBOS, 2010). The main economic activity in

Kamuli district is agriculture with emphasis on food crops (rice,

sweet potatoes, bananas, maize, finger millet, sorghum, soya beans,

simsim), cash crops (coffee, cotton, sugar cane) and vegetables

(tomatoes, cabbage and onions). Other economic activities include

fishing in River Nile & Lake Kyoga, ranching (cattle, goats, sheep, chicken), fish farming, bee keeping and

retail trade in the urban centers. Kamuli District is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, with the

predominant ethnic group being the Basoga. Other ethnic groups include Itesots, Banyoro, Bakenyi,

Baruli, Banyara, Baganda, Basamia and Banyole. The predominantly language spoken in Kamuli district is

Lusoga.

Table 1: Population of Kamuli district by sex and selected age groups Indicator Kamuli Male Female Total %

<1 year 15,800 15,900 31,700 5 1-4years 57,600 58,600 116,200 17

5 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

5-14years 110,400 111,100 221,500 32 15-49years 120,200 141,100 261,300 38 50+ years 28,700 31,000 59,700 8 Total Population 332,600 357,700 690,300 100 The district’s estimated population is 690,300 people (UBOS 2009 mid-year projections), 38% of which is

15-49 years (Table 1). The women in the reproductive age group (15-49 years) are 20% of the district

population and constitute 39.4 % of the females in the district.

Year, Estimated Population

2002, 558,500

2003, 587,000

2004, 616,900

2005, 648,400

2006, 681,400

2007, 716,200

2008, 752,700

2009, 791,100

2010, 831,400

On Health, Kamuli district has low numbers of health staff (38% of the recommended number of staff).

Infrastructure is inadequate with only 40% of the required number of health facilities existing. Quite

many (64%) of the facilities observed fully complied with the MoH guidelines for health facility

infrastructure. The district has 26 private health facilities which include 24 private not for profit (PNFP)

and 2 private for profit (PFP) facilities. Kamuli district has only 4% of village health teams (VHTs)

according to MoH standards. Equipment (65% of the recommended amount), supplies, drugs and

commodities (62% of the recommended amount) were quite available but still insufficient in the health

facilities. Client satisfaction is poor at 45% compared to STRIDES average of 69%. “Kamuli district should

put in place some mechanisms to attract and motivate staff.

Explore mechanisms like salary top-ups, accommodation for staff and annual staff recognition

which may attract and motivate health workers to serve in the district” STRIDES report says.

Set up a supervision and training database and streamline the system of monitoring the quality

of services that these staff delivers.

Facilitate sensitization meetings to educate the in charges of health facilities on the importance

of monitoring and reporting.

6 | R e a d i n g C h i l d , R e a d y H o u s e h o l d , H e a l t h y C o m m u n i t y , W e a l t h y N a t i o n S u p p l e m e n t . < l u s o g a l a n g a c @ g m a i l . c o m >

Organize quarterly review meetings and provide feedback on reports and progress of

performance against targets, as well as further build capacity of the personnel. The presence of

17 private NGOs implementing health programs in the district together with private health

facilities provides good public-private partnership opportunities for Kamuli district.

Work towards formalizing, strengthening and maintaining such relationships with individuals

and organizations and build even more in order to secure the financial resources needed to

leverage government funding.

“We intend to use this God chance to make our lives, homes, villages and district better resourced in the

near future through reading skills.” Says the Deputy Head teacher at Kidiki Parents’ School.

For more information please contact the following people: Mr. Joseph Waibi – Director +256772876010 Mr. Michael Walekaki, Kidiki Secondary +256776845128 Mr. Mutonto, Director of Studies +256 Mr. Kavuma, Headmaster Kidiki +256 Mr. Cornelius Gulere - Over seer +256712530512

Summary Financial Statement as at June 1, 2013 Money received 3.9Million

Items purchased Item 1 and 2: Plastering, flooring, closing room - 1,542,000/=; Item 3: Painting 630,500/= Item 4: other materials 290,000/= (carpet), 35,000/= (1,000m of string), 30,000/= (assorted toys), 23,000/=.(ink pad and stamp). Total expenditure: 2,550,500/=