Category: Uganda

Kitengesa Community Library hosts third health camp, #Uganda

On August 29-30, 2019, the Kitengesa Community Library hosted its third health camp for adult women. The funds for this camp and for the last one in 2018 were donated by the Heidi Paoli Fund, so, because of the Fund’s interest in the care of cancer patients, the two camps focused on cancer—appropriately since cancer, especially of the cervix and the breast, now kills more people in Uganda than even malaria. The Marie Stopes Clinic, located nearby in Masaka town, provided professional help: the doctor who directs the clinic spoke to the participants about cancer and answered questions, and two nurses offered screening to anyone who wanted it for HOV, the viral infection that leads to cervical cancer; the library’s computer room was turned into a temporary clinic for the purpose. Thirty-one people attended the camp, including twenty who had never been to the library before, and twenty-six were screened. Aside from the doctor’s talk and the screenings, the library set up board games for the women to play that were designed to reinforce the information, and they also, led by one of the librarians, played a cancer-focused version of Jeopardy. Despite the fact that the rainy season had just begun and the women were anxious to work in their gardens, they appreciated the camp and were unanimous in asking us to organize more in future about other health issues.

Visit to Bundibugyo community library, behind the Ruwenzori Mountains in western Uganda

FAVL East Africa director Kate Parry was visiting some libraries around the country. She writes about Bundibugyo community library, behind the Ruwenzori Mountains in western Uganda: “They’ve set it up very nicely, with low shelves for the children’s books and nice little chairs for children to sit in. They run a children’s program every Saturday afternoon and debates and quizzes rather less frequently for secondary school students.” The library Facebook page with more photos is here.

News from Kitengesa Library in Uganda

kateparryretirementFAVL East Africa director Kate Parry recently celebrated her upcoming retirement from teaching at Hunter College CUNY in New York with a party-fundraiser for Kitengesa Community Library. Thanks to all the donors and attendees!

Kate will be going to Uganda next month,  via England, and when she gets to Kitengesa she’ll be organizing the next Women’s Health Camp. They library just held one for teenagers, and we hope to have a report on that soon.

IMG_1171Posted back in 2018, here is a short audio podcast feature with Kate Parry and about Kitengesa, with Pat Duffy from the United Nations hosting.  The blurb for the podcast is: “We talk to some of the people involved in two small-scale projects supported by the UN, which have helped transform their communities, in rural Uganda, and South Sudan.”  Listening is a great way to learn about Kitengesa library. The video features music from the Kitengesa Library band… see photo at right!

 

A health camp in Kitengesa community library in Uganda

Kitengesa community library in Uganda recently launched a women’s health camp. The library  had a terrific young doctor from the Marie Stopes clinic in town talking to women and the women participated enthusiastically.  UBC interns are hard at work, with librarians and library scholars. Library scholars are learning how to play snakes and ladders. There is a version of the game that includes ladder cards, naming practices that are good for your health, and snake cards, naming practices that are bad for it. The camps hopes to get women to make equivalent cards about cancer.

Some photos from Kitengesa library in Uganda

The children in the photos come from the Muslim primary school in Kitengesa trading centre. Their classmates were in a football match, and they were at a loose end. The books that Kitengesa Community Library has for young children have become very popular. Adults come regularly to read the newspapers.

Update from Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda

From Kate Parry:  We were at Kitengesa last week. The library’s Self-Help Group (that emerged from the Women’s Group) is going strong, and so is our work with the deaf; we are planning to put in for an All Children Reading grant for the latter, to translate African Storybook stories into Ugandan Sign Language. We have ASb’s support, so it only remains now to get the grant (we probably won’t, since it’s very competitive, but you never know). The village is growing apace, with the Afripads factory and our own maize mill going up—the maize mill, in fact, is ready to start production. We planned a trial before leaving last week but couldn’t do it because there was no electricity that day.