For too many girls in Uganda, books are a luxury. But reading isn’t just about being transported to a different time and place. For the girls in the slums and villages of Uganda, books are a means to gain a vocabulary and that means a job and money for food. For these girls, reading is their ladder out of poverty, a passport to a better life.
So what can we do? We can buy girls books and help them learn to read.
Pre-Covid, my #giveagirlabook initiative was all about collected secondhand books for girls in Africa. Now, with lockdown making both collection and distribution difficult, the best way to support girls is by channeling funds to the organisations on the ground supporting girls in need.
The 'We still have a dream' campaign in Uganda does just that. Together we'll be providing books and teaching resources to the girls in the Namuwongo slum, one of the largest and poorest in Uganda. Many of these girls can't afford to go to school. Those who do, are now in Covid lockdown, and don't have access to computers and remote learning, so the books and reading clubs we'll help sponsor are vital.
We might not have the power to change the world, but we can change one person’s world…starting with a book.
Thanks for donating x