Non-profit The Kasiisi Project

Imagine you attend a school where there are 200 children in your class, where you have to set out for the eight mile walk to school at 5am, and you won’t reach home again until after dark and you have to learn all your lessons in a foreign language. And then imagine that you have never looked at a picture book or read an exciting story. The only book you see is the math textbook that you share with 10 other children or the bible at church. The nearest lending library, 15 miles away, wouldn’t give you a card even if you could afford the bus fare, you are too poor. There are certainly no books at home and the oral story telling tradition that opened the world to your parents is dying out as families shrink and where just putting food on the table every night is an exhausting struggle.

Take a moment to think of what your life would be like without easy access to books. It is almost impossible to imagine. Reading for fun opens up endless possibilities for our lives, it teaches us writing and spelling, vocabulary and history and it makes us happy. There are so few books in rural Ugandan schools and they are so precious that they are kept locked in a small cupboard, which acts as the school “library” and are rarely lent out. There is no space for display; no librarian to help chooses exciting and interesting books, nowhere to study, no reading aloud time and no books. The Kasiisi Project Library Program is changing this for the 4000 students who attend 5 rural primary schools in Western Uganda. The first library is built, equipped and staffed. Please help us complete our mission.

The Kasiisi Project was founded in 1997, by a partnership of expatriate and Ugandan researchers to help struggling rural schools around Kibale National Park, Uganda cope with the huge influx of children that followed the introduction of free Universal Primary Education. Through a range of programs that support students and staff the project works to bring high quality education to the children of the subsistence farmers whose land borders the park.

The project is administered in Uganda by The Kibale Forest Schools and Student Support Project – a Ugandan registered “Community Based Organisation” and actively collaborates with other local NGO’s to maximize its impact in the community. The input of the parents, teachers, community leaders and government officials who serve on our boards and committees keeps the project grounded in the community and responsive to locally identified needs. A survey in 2007 showed that 89% of adults polled in surrounding villages were able to accurately describe the project's activities and said that it had a positive impact on the community.

From 11 years of experience we are have developed a sound record of identifying and evaluating successful educational programs. This is reflected in the substantial improvements in academic performance, staff attendance rates and morale seen in schools supported by the project.

To develop in the students of all 5 Kasiisi Project schools a love of reading which will expand their horizons, open their minds to the wide range of choices in their lives and give them academic success so that they will become informed, socially aware and successful adults. Our goals are to provide: easy access to culturally appropriate books, welcoming and comfortable reading and study space, literacy activities and guidance.

Library Buildings: The first step in making books easy to obtain is having the space to display them. In a country where most schools lack enough classrooms, libraries are considered a luxury and so there is no funding in government schools for non-essential buildings. In all but one the one school, where we have built a library, the library is a small locked, cupboard making it extremely difficult to see what is available or to find the right books. The limited space also severely restricts the number of students who can look at books at any one time. As the first step to putting books into the hands of the children in our schools The Kasiisi Project Library Program is will construct library buildings at all 5 schools. The use of mobile shelves will allow these libraries to provide flexible space to host literacy events such as “ Story Tents”, writing workshops, conservation programs, etc.

Flexible Library Hours: Even where a school has some reading books, access to them is so very restrictive it makes it very hard for children to borrow books. School days are long, after school classes often compulsory and there are no funds to pay teachers to man the libraries. In order to make it easy for children to borrow and read books The Kasiisi Library Program will staff the libraries after school, during weekends and in the school holidays. During after school hours the libraries will also be a resource for teachers, families and older siblings to borrow books, study, consult references and prepare lessons spreading the impact of the program to the wider community.

Culturally appropriate books: Ugandan schools have very few books and most of those are text books. Books donated from the west are often so culturally inappropriate as to be worthless. There is very little support given to children to encourage them to read and even if they do want books it is very difficult to get hold of them. The closest Public Library is 15 miles away making it too expensive to visit and precious books are so closely guarded that it is almost impossible to get a library card. The Kasiisi Library Project will collaborate with The Ugandan Children’s Writers and illustrators Association to supply the right children’s books including those written by Ugandan writers, and those written in the local languages.

Furniture: The children at Kasiisi Project Schools need comfortable well –lit spaces to read and study. Their homes lack of electric light, and domestic chores during the week prevent them from having the time to read. The Kasiisi Library Program will provide welcoming flexible reading spaces by supplying moveable bookshelves, tables, chairs and mats.

Literacy activities and guidance. A lack of trained librarians and teachers familiar with children’s books means that children get little or no help choosing books they will enjoy. The Kasiisi Library Program will hire one trained librarian to be shared between all 5 schools who will be responsible for overseeing the libraries and who will train assistant librarians to man the libraries during regular opening hours. This librarian will also be responsible for designing activities which will encourage children to visit the libraries and get interested in books

Name of Organization:The Kasiisi Project
Number of Paid Staff:2
Number of Volunteers:25
Total Organizational Expenses:$97,466
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:8%

The Kasiisi Project has a unique place among organizations whose vision is to provide rural Ugandan children with a first class education and we have the reputation for administering programs that work. We have achieved this success for the following reasons:

The US directors have worked in Uganda since 1987 and spend extended periods of time in Uganda every year, so they are familiar with the people and their culture and are well known in the local community.
The expatriate and Ugandan directors of the project have been friends for 20 years. Our affection for each other means we can weather the inevitable cultural hurdles and work together to promote our common vision for the schools.
The Long-term nature of the project (11 years) means that the Ugandan NGO understands we are in this for the long haul and, knowing that funds will not disappear if not grabbed quickly, gives a more honest assessment of the potential success of proposed programs, identifying pitfalls that are not readily apparent to non-nationals.
Our Ugandan director, Prof. John Kasenene, is a member of the Batoro, the locally dominant tribe, has a home in the area and does his field research in Kibale National Park where he directs the Makerere University Biological Field Station. His wife, Elizabeth Kasenene, is the principal of our flagship school. The Project is deeply embedded in the community through parents, teachers, local government officials and Uganda Wildlife Authority personnel who serve on our committees and administer our programs in the local schools. We are thus well placed to identify and design programs with the maximum local acceptance and impact.
Having worked in Uganda for so long we are well connected with other NGO’s operating in Uganda both in the local district and nationally as well as with government organizations. This allows us to take maximum advantage of their expertise as well as being in a position to providing advice and supervision for newer projects.
We work hard to maintain connections with similar NGO’s and we are recognized as having a pivotal role in the area as a hub for these organizations, preventing duplication and wasted resources.
We approach each new program slowly and with care and spend much time, ironing out the wrinkles before proceeding. Each program gets tested in one school before being expanded into all schools.

In 1998 Kasiisi Primary school was a cluster of condemned buildings so fragile that they had to be evacuated during storms. 900 children and 12 teachers crowded into 6 classrooms with few resources, no books, no water and minimal sanitation. Morale was low, academic performance abysmal and few children qualified for secondary school. 10 years later Kasiisi Primary School has been designated a “Model School” by the local Education Authority. 14 new classrooms, a library block, staff housing for 2 families, clean water, adequate latrines for boys and girls, and new nursery school have transformed it. It ranks 3^rd of 157 rural district schools for academic performance and 5 of its graduates are now at University. Our goal is that all 5 Kasiisi Project schools will rank in the top 10 schools in the district and we know that we can do this. What the project has achieved with one school it can achieve for the other 4 project schools. It just takes commitment and funding.

Children
Education
Poverty

The Kasiisi Project offers the following ways to get involved with our work.

a) Volunteer opportunities in Uganda (high schools and college). Overseas volunteers are normally of college age or, if accompanied by chaperones, high school students. There is also the potential for family groups to visit and volunteer in Uganda. Volunteers play games with Ugandans, help in the classroom, teach English, paint classrooms, etc

b) In the USA volunteers assist with craft sales, write reading books, write pen-pal letters to Ugandan students, collect academic supplies, girls hygiene supplies etc

Personal connections. We can provide the excitement and satisfaction of personal one-on-one relationships between supporters in the US and the children in Uganda. As a small organization we are easily able to organize this and to suggest ways that US children can become involved in our work in Uganda at a personal level. Our 10 years of collaboration with Weston Public Schools and Girl Scout groups and church schools has shown us that children become really excited about and committed to this cross-cultural connection and the sense that they are getting to know the individual children they are supporting.

Support for peers: Through the Kasiisi Project the young people making the donations are helping their peers. They share many of the same dreams and aspirations, school problems, family issues, sports interests, academic challenges etc with the students they are helping. Young Americans are amazed at the real hurdles that Ugandan children face: huge classes; no books; 8 mile walks to school; no lunch, etc., and can imagine themselves trying to excel at school under these conditions. They can imagine how it must feel to try and learn while you are hungry, to not get the help you need when you can’t understand the lesson, to have day after day of school with no teacher, to do homework with no books or electric light, to have to walk long distances to school in heavy rain. They understand on a deeply personal level that their donations can make a big difference.

Name:Elizabeth Ross
Title:President
Address:64 Linnaean Street Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
Telephone:617-493-5775
Email:elizabethaross@mac.com
Website:www.kasiisiproject.org

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The Kasiisi Library Program