eYouth Uganda

In Uganda, public libraries are only in big cities like the capital Kampala, even though still there are few there. Internet is also inaccessible to many young Ugandans in secondary and primary schools even though internet connectivity is increasing but this is centered among adults above 18 years of age.

With the introduction of new curriculum in lower level secondary ( ordinary level secondary), that need student to do research during school time and after school time, many students, school and parents are finding it difficult to cope up. Many rural and some urban school don't have the required or have inadequate Information Communication Technology tools or devices to facilitate this mode of learning. On other side parents and students also can't afford to buy these ICT devices themselves. The remaining alternative of public libraries is only available to few people in the big cities. This has created a big gap between urban and rural school students creating upper class students and lower class students. This inequality has impacted the quality of education received by students from low income earning families is not the same as that of the mid income earning families and high income earning families.

Therefore as a concerned citizen I seek to provide a solution to this bridge this gap.

We seek to create a small size public library for primary level and secondary level school going students in the area of Nyakasanga 2 ward, Kasese Municipality, Kasese district Uganda. 

A kind of public library with open source online resources like textbooks, tutorials and documentaries by utilizing free resources provided by organizations like Khan academy, Wikimedia and other online sources. All we need to make this possible we need desktop computers and internet access. This is easier and cost effective way to build a public library for our community. 

Running on a small proposed budget its expensive to buy books and building permanent schools. We propose to use movable semi permanent structure and free online resources like eBooks instead of traditional paper books which are costly.

Our team is made of volunteers who want to give back to community in this way by helping the young generation attain a better education.

My solution seeks to serve the people of Nyakasanga 2 ward in Kasese municipality, Kasese district, Uganda.

This project would benefit many school going students and pupil minimuly 50 students and maximumly 150 students every year for the start up but with further scaling of the project it would benefit more than 300 students every year.

This project will help in engaging learner in active learning and participation in their learning process. Many learner drop out of school because the motivated to be in school because they are not so engaged in the learning process and have lost their passions.

We tend to bridge this gap with give some career guidance and counselling to these learners and motivate them to keep learning and prioritize their education and being personate about what careers they want to pursue and work harder in the line with their dreams.

As children of the community who have been in this same situation, we are trying to solve it with help of community members like school administrators, parents, local leaders and the learners themselves. During my undergraduate studies, I conducted a research about impact of educational resources on the performance of students in Kasese district, made to realize the cause of the poor performance of students in slum and rural areas like my community.

We have had meetings with school administrators, teachers  and parents about this project and they have been involved in the planning and would be still involved in the implementation.

We applying to MIT solve, because we think need all support we can get either non monetary or monetary for example product-market fit, strategy and development knowledge or financial support inform of grants or donations would be of great value.

But mostly important we have the same purpose of solving challenges in communities, and this great bond attracted us to MIT solve.

Our project it is probably the first of its kind, we hope this we will work as a wake up call to all stake holders in the education sector of how much schools or students need facilities to make learning and education better.

We hope this project will remind every stake holder about much needed investment in educational facilities like public libraries and internet rooms.

We plan to expand this model to the nearby parishes or wards, since we aim to make a really impact on the community. we also want to inspire other social entrepreneurs to replicate this model in many other areas beyond our reach.

We hope this project will help to reduce the rate of school drop out in Nyakasanga 2 ward. and with further expansion to the division level, we hope for much greater impact in reductions of the school drop out rate.

Since the locality of the ward is not a huge geographical location, we will follow up on the students who participate in the progress in collaboration with their school administration to check on student performance and enrollment in school. We aim to improve the quality of education in the whole country but this community project is the kick start point.

Our theory change is that we believe that this challenge exists and we seek to solve it with the help of the community members, with great dedication, motivation and collaboration, this project will succeed.

With career guidance and counseling services to school children we hope that school drop out rates will decrease.

With education facilities inclusion, we know that the students will be motivated to student and keep in school.

We plan to use software owned by other organizations, like Khan academy and some time google meetings and classrooms.

We are non discriminatory. We work with people of special needs, colors and genders.

This is a solution for a community as a whole.

We plan to issue out library cards to our members where they will obliged to pay a membership fee to cater for the operational costs like electricity, internet bills, labor and among others.

With scaling up, we expected to make more revenue hence realizing a profit that can help us expand to other areas with the same mission and goals. 

We are lobbying for grants or donations from any possible sources.

When fully operational we will be selling membership subscription so as to generate revenue to sustain the project.

We the founding committee has so far raised 1 million Ugandan shillings as part of their contribution to the project.