Library Committee Meeting.

Agenda: 

Judging the Logo Competition
Lending books to private individuals trial
Responsibilities update from Committee Members
Planning the move to the new library building and ideas for wall art decorations
Outreach programme and trial of story reading in Kabubbu Trading Centre
Development Club update and tools provision
Fundraising Update
Annual evaluation of Library progress and opening of the Library suggestion box
Programmes for Children
Kabaka Update
Kevin Pollard's offer of voluntary help

  Ritah, the Librarian, announced that she has completed her Diploma in Education and will be able to work the same hours as Annet, the other Librarian, from January onwards.   An additional 72,000/= was passed to Enoch the Library Committee Treasurer in order to equalise the wages for Annet and Ritah for the period January - June 2004. One main discussion centred around the loaning trial on the issues of book security and administration.  It was agreed that the current sign out process used when trusted members of the Library borrow books would be extented to a wider audience within Kabubbu.   A small selection of the donated fiction books for adults, secondary level and infant / primary (about 25 in each category) will be made available for loaning until May 2004.  The aim is to assist promotion of the Reading Culture by enabling people to take longer fiction books home.  The community will first be mobilised and sensitized by Library Committee Members on how they should respond to this scheme.    It will be made clear that this is a trial and that if when it is reviewed in May 2004 many of the books from the loan collection are missing the opportunity for wider loaning will be withdrawn.  The emphasis is on the Community to make a success of the scheme.  The overall risk of the scheme is being kept to a minimum by loaning only a small collection of donated books which are easy to replace. Another important issue was that of providing identity cards for the Library Committee Members to assist them in their work for the Committee, especially when networking and fundraising.  The Committee are charged with designing a suitable ID card for their purposes and agreeing by-laws for its use. Committee members were meeting the individual responsibilities they were given in October 2003, well. They were encouraged to review their progress in meetings more often to give an opportunity to share ideas and successful methods of encouraging volunteers and the Reading Culture. Representatives from the Literacy Classes have now joined the Committee as have some others which will help distribute the burden of responsibilities, widen the power base and empower new members with committee skills.

A community meeting for the Annual evaluation of of Library Progress was agreed for the May 2004 visit.
The suggestion box was opened and 10 suggestions were read to the Committee, the most common issue related to discipline in the Literacy Classes.    The Committee is to appoint a discipline officer to promote discipline within Library Users and the Literacy Classes.  This issue will also be addressed during the Literacy Class evaluations.  The Librarians had not noted any large scale problems with Literacy Class discipline.  The comments referred to low key behaviours of fellow students which compromised the learning environment for those near them.

It was agreed to establish a programme of Library Activities specifically for children once the move to the dedicated building is complete.

Performance from The Pigeons Music, Dance and Drama Group, promoting AIDS prevention.

One Hundred and seventy people from Kabubbu attended a fantastic afternoon of performing arts given by The Pigeons, Youth against AIDS organisation.  The group visited from Gayaza and their high quality programme included traditional dance, songs and a play about contracting AIDS.  There was a testimony given by an AIDS sufferer.  The response from the people of Kabubbu was very positive and many said they would welcome a future visit from The Pigeons so that they could ensure all their children were there to receive the message.

Librarian training.

Adult literacy teaching skills were discussed with the help of new text books from the Macmillan Reward series giving ideas for classroom activities and a VSO book on Adult Literacy Teaching.   The Librarians classified all 80 new books which were delivered on this visit independently.   It was a wonderful achievement for them that we only disagreed on the classification of one title which was a book on collecting things (which was a difficult one to classify anyway).

Outreach trial - children's story reading in Kabubbu Trading Centre.

A story reading was conducted by a youth member of the library committee and another local volunteer.   Around 40 children attended this unadvertised event and enjoyed the story and questions.  It was concluded that a quieter location would aid the concentration of the children in the future.  Adults were also invited to participate, the audience was mostly men who appeared dis-interested.  This section of the Community are not regular Library users.

Festival of Reading.

The Reading Festival incorporated activities for all ages and educational abilities.  The morning program included: a taught programme of word games for the children, a Reference Book Challenge and an Animal

Facts research exercise for secondary and adult levels.    These activities were enjoyed by all who participated (60 children and 30 adults).  Caps donated by British Airways were presented as encouragement prizes.   The Reference Book Challenge was a useful way to familiarise the community with the many different reference books available to them and gave them practice in the skills needed to use them.  A representative from Macmillan Publishers came with basic reading materials and spent 4 hours helping the children with their reading.

The afternoon programme included readings from 35 Literacy Students in English, Luganda and Swahili.

The Logo competition entries were displayed and the prizes awarded.  A tour of the Library and the other developments on the site (Medical Clinic, Water Pump, Visitor Accommodation, Dedicated Library Building, School Administration Block) was given for honored guests.  The Deputy Kaggo a representative of the

Kabaka (King of Buganda a tribal country within Uganda) was very impressed with the project.  He complimented the choice of books in the library and was impressed by the clothes made of cement sacks produced by the Tailoring Development Club.  The day was completed with speeches and a fund-raising auction in support of the Library.   UNESCO filmed the whole event for the Uganda evening news. The encouragement prizes were so popular that those who missed out are waiting excitedly to find out when the next Library event will be so that they can participate.

Fundraising auction.

The fundraising team supporting Kabubbu Community Library was established in September 2003 in order to participate in a series of fundraising seminars.   The group organised a fundraising auction of donated crops and clothes by asking the Literacy students and other beneficiaries of the library to donate something if they could afford it.   The auction was great fun and raised approx £30 which the fundraising team will use to open their own bank account.  They will then be able to apply for grants from organisations who require access to a bank account to donate.

Future planning for fundraising activities.

The team has also produced a fundraising strategy which we discussed and selected the options which were minimum risk with no prior investment needed.   They have also agreed to observe how the Church goes about local fundraising to learn some techniques.   The group have written letters to various funding bodies 2 of which were refused, one sent an application form and the rest are pending a response.  The letters and choices of organisations were reviewed and refinements made.

Enlisting the support of the Prime Minister of the Buganda Government and his local representatives.

Members of the Library Committee worked hard to promote the work of the Library to the representatives of the King of Buganda (Kabaka) on this visit.  At each stage the representatives were very impressed and we received visits to the Library project from several chiefs.   The Deputy Kaggo was guest of honour at the Reading Festival.   Then we were invited to the Buildings of the Buganda Government to meet the Prime Minister (Katikkiro) of the Buganda Government, to whom the King of Buganda has given his powers.  This went very successfully and was attended by Victoria and Pamela Vassie and 3 members of the Kabubbu Community Library Committee.   We also talked with the Permanent Secretary who offered the Library Committee free radio advertising for any Library events they may wish to promote.  The purpose of this networking was to make a direct link for the Library project to the Kabaka.  This would be helpful for two reasons: because the Kabaka has many local representatives who can promote library activities over a larger area and assist in the planned outreach programme.  The philosophy of the people who work for the Kabaka is one of volunteering and doing community work for the 'Good of your Country'.    If the Kabaka's repesentatives promote this philosophy along with the Library it would stimulate the voluntary culture enabling expansion of the library programme.

Advising on business investment opportunities and business planning.

A number of people in the village are looking for investment to start local businesses in order to achieve self-sufficiency. I helped them by directing them to business planning materials in the Library and asking them to produce a cash flow forecast which I can present it to any potential investors.   I hope that investors would consider investing as an investment is a donation to a community project can be reused over and over again as it is repaid.

Advocacy Workshops.

5 x 3 hour advocacy workshops were given by Pamela Vassie an experienced campaigner and citizen's rights expert.  The workshops were attended by 10 community members and their response was enthusiastic and committed.   The workshops considered the current context of advocacy in Kabubbu, priority issues for which advocacy skills could be used obtain support and to promote solutions, techniques for approaching MPs, funders etc for support and strategic planning of advocacy campaigns. The workshops culminated in the formation of Kabubbu Advocacy Group for the purpose of promoting the case for electricity supplies in Kabubbu.  The group have already carried out research to find out the cost of supplying electricity by solar panel to the newly opened health centre.  Their plans are to lobby local MPs in order to secure electricity for Kabubbu and in addition approach possible funders for part of the money showing local initiative and allowing them to propose a match funding deal with the Ugandan government.

UNESCO work in Uganda.

I also conducted business as the Liason in Uganda to the Youth Ambassador of UNESCO, Don McBurney.  This included delivering 2 sets of bathroom scales to the Early Childhood Care and Development Centre (ECCD) in Gayaza and presenting a CD player to the Pigeons group after their performance in Kabubbu.  My role as Liason to the Youth Ambassador of UNESCO is to identify organisations in Uganda which the Ambassador can help.   My co-liaison in Uganda, Seguya Pius, has been active in contacting these organisations and arranging for them to demonstrate their services. 

The Pigeons were a very well organised and motivated group of young people showing great initative and professionalism in their work to prevent AIDS in the young.  They gave a high quality performance to 150 people in Kabubbu.

The ECCD is a pilot scheme for an early years childcare day centre.  Children handled are pre-school age and mothers take turns to care for them on a rota basis.  The mothers are given training in basic child health, eg. weight gain in children for healthy development and nutrition, which they are encouraged to take back to their local communities as well as applying at the ECCD Centre. This a young project and a new initiative which lacks other organisations or centres to share experiences with.  The members need to be encouraged to volunteer more willingly and to see the benefit of what they are doing for their children.  The centre suffers from the perception that it has little value as it does not offer school fees.

Premises in Gayaza for the proposed internet café, for which The Youth Ambassador of UNESCO has secured 20 computers, were examined and detailed rent and electricity supply figures were obtained.   Seguya Pius is heading up this project and is awaiting news from Ged who is supplying the computers from the UK.   UNESCO are being approached to help get the computers into Uganda tax free.  The objective is for Ged to deliver the computers and provide 2 months of set up work and training of the café staff,

Seguya Pius will be manager.  Following this the café will be open for commercial business and use by schools.   Profits are intended to be used to support Kabubbu Community Library.