Sounds Like a Plan?

With the benefit of hindsight, some ServeDirect ideas work much better than others. For example: setting up the Connect Education Centres to help primary schools with basic Literacy, English & Maths and founding The Rock Health Centre to 'add value' to WTA, (the secondary school). Both very successful.

Another: partnering with 'READ for Life' which has greatly enhanced the 'Connect Effect' in the north. So far so good.

But what's the next plan, now that some of the literacy projects are now working TOO well? (TOO well you ask?, read on...).

Enter the innovative Mobile Library Project! This is a pilot joint initiative between ServeDirect and READ for Life - distributing small, portable libraries to primary schools in and around Gulu. Connect staff will distribute, train & monitor the use of them and R4L staff will continue to train and mentor teachers, identifying additional schools, so that more and more children can get reading. Of course, the earlier a child can read, the faster their progress in school. It sounds simple.

How to become a Mobile Library expert in minutes:

1. Each library contains about 400 books: phonics readers, picture books & reading books
2. They look like small cupboards on wheels
3. Made of metal to be termite-proof and burglar-proof
4. Lockable, durable & even portable - a library fits on the back of a boda/motorbike
5. Exchangeable: each term, a school is issued with different mobile library contents to keep them fresh
6. Each partner school has a designated Connect teacher to demonstrate how to use it and teach the school teachers do the same
7. Connect teachers continue to visit each school, once a week for 'read aloud' & other activities
8. Partner schools pay a refundable deposit, so that books are secure
9. Children and teachers are already loving the libraries and loving the Connect visits
10. R4L staff will continue to train and monitor teachers in other schools, so the need for more Mobile Libraries will grow!

Why have we taken this step? Firstly, both Connect Education Centres are doing exactly what they set out to do: developing Literacy, English & Maths in local primary schools, but they are limited geographically with their resources. Secondly, READ for Life is undeniably hugely successful in training and mentoring local teachers in a much wider area (over 200 schools!), so that primary children are reading faster and more effectively than ever before. However, the result is that many more children are reading well and hungry for books, but very few have access to books or a library. The Mobile Library Project will help to fill that gap by giving access to the CEC resources to many more schools.

A Mobile Library in use at a partner school

Mercy from CEC Gulu with a partner school teacher

The best ideas are often absurdly simple and these Mobile Libraries could be one of those great ideas. During this first pilot phase of 'rolling out' the initial mobile libraries, (which, are also on wheels), the response has been extremely positive. Together with READ for Life, we are all quietly confident that this will continue, so that later this year, we can fundraise and distribute more and more!