Hey Everyone – having been away from my organization, LABE (Literacy and Adult Basic Education), for a while I got a little derailed on a project we started before I left. I’m still not back at site, but am thinking forward to jump-starting what I know will be a fun and important program.
Northern Uganda, until about 2008, had been at war for more that two decades. Villagers were “housed” in large camps called IDP (Internally Displace People) camps, where thousands lived together as an act of “protection” from the resistance groups who were murdering, raping and abusing women and children and conscripting every healthy male (from age 7 up) to to go to war, often with their first act a requirement to watch or participate in the murder of their families. I do not exaggerate. Many have known nothing but life in the camps and are still being reconnected with what’s left of their families.
In this environment, education, health care and all social structures disintegrated. The presence of Peace Corps in Northern Uganda has one primary purpose – to help rebuild and heal a culture. To this end, LABE (funded largely by the Dutch) was created in 1999 as a way of bringing the ability to read and write to the Villages, while also teaching parenting skills, health care, gender-equity and other tools of self-governance. The program is making a significant difference, but education in general in Uganda is woefully inadequate.
As part of the effort to build this program I have suggested we start a “story hour” reading program to reach even more young children and their mothers in an effort to help them discover that “reading is fun.” In the States, we take this for granted because we are already a reading culture. Uganda is not, but if it is to move forward, it must be. Education is the key and reading is key to education. Reading for fun is where it starts and studies show that children who are read to early in life do better in school and fare better throughout life.
Since this is a new concept and they don’t know YET that reading is fun, we need to offer other games and activities as part of the start up of the program. Therefore, we want to have games, crafts and toys available as part of our activities to entice people to come. At present, we are making the game Chutes and Ladders out of discarded cardboard and using bottle caps for tokens.
These toys will remain with the program and become part of what’s available to play and learn with when they come for “story hour.” We have already secured the approval and support of the Gulu Town Clerk and have the venues, we just need more materials.
Most of these children have never been “read aloud’ to. Many have never seen a picture book, but when Joy – one of the Program Specialists at LABE- and I have taken picture books to the villages and read aloud to the kids, it has been magical. The potential is there and they are hungry for these opportunities and experiences.
So – I am offering an outlet for used children’s educational toys: puzzles, games, building blocks, alphabet letters. I know some of you either will be or know people who will be cleaning out kids’ toy closets in preparation for the haul that most American kids receive at Christmas. If you do such a project and want an outlet for these toys, please send them this way.
We need durable things: wooden or stiff cardboard puzzles and manipulative toys, games, picture books, glue sticks, stickers, you name it. Puzzles – which hardly exist here – teach abstract thinking, pattern recognition, problem solving, fine motor skills and wire the brain for the type of foundational processes necessary for higher level cognition. Schools here DO NOT offer this type of learning (all rote learning), but things are changing as a result of programs like LABE.
Shipping costs: I know this is problematic. It’s not cheap to send to Uganda, but perhaps a local church, Rotary Clubs or other organization can assist with some of this. If some folks don’t have toys, etc. but want to support this effort, maybe a combined approach were people chip in for shipping can be helpful.
If you DO send, PLEASE mark USED TOYS and goods. If not, I will be charged a stiff DUTY on new stuff.
The mailing address for any of you so inclined is:
Nancy Wesson, Peace Corps Volunteer
P.O. Box 914
Gulu TOWN, Uganda
AFRICA
Thanks everyone and may you enjoy the blessings of the season!
Please feel free to share this with others you may feel are interested.