Library Scholars
In the Kitengesa Community Library’s Scholars Program, donors pay tuition fees for selected students at Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School, and in return the students work in the library. The school itself contributes by paying boarding fees for two scholars if they live too far away to go home after working at night. We began the scheme in 2004 with two scholars, Godfrey Katerega and Judith Nassaka, who are pictured below with four others who had joined them by June 2005 (Godfrey is in the back, wearing a red shirt, while Judith is on the right in front).
By 2007 we had seven, one for each day of the week. They are in different classes so that no more than two scholars finish school in any one year. Two, Gemma Nabukenya and Muzamir Bwowe, finished in 2009 and gained particularly good marks in their final exams, with a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 respectively (the highest grade is a 1). The ones who remain in the 2010 group are shown here, together with Gemma, but the new scholars had not yet been selected.
Moses Ssekayiba (the small boy in the front of the first picture) was a Library Scholar in 2005-6. He comes from a large family, and his father had difficulty finding the fees to send him to school. The Scholarship Program helped, and Moses’ fees were covered. Being a Library Scholar built up his skills and confidence as well: "It taught me to be a hard-working boy," he says. Moses has considerable musical talent and hopes to become a professional singer, using the name of Spiderman. He has written several songs, building on ideas that he says he got from library books, and, with the help of the local radio station, has recorded them on CD. The songs are in Luganda and emphasize how important it is to get an education. To listen to one of them, click here.
Moses is only one example of what good value the Scholarship Program is. Supporting a Library Scholar costs $120 per year; for that money the library has the labor force that it needs, and the students not only have their formal education paid for but learn a number of valuable extracurricular skills. In October-November 2008, a Canadian volunteer, Carrie-Jane Williams, worked with them to show them how to get information from the library’s
eGranary – a hard disk containing millions of texts that can be searched in the same way as the Internet. And even when not working on the eGranary, they get opportunities to practice their computer skills. The scholars are thus becoming the IT experts of the village – and they are passing their skills on to their fellow students.
If you would like to sponsor a Library Scholar, please print out the donation form as directed in the section on DONATE, and check the box to indicate that it is for a scholar.
