1) The Kitengesa Community Library had its official opening of its new library building in January 2012. 2) The new building includes an expanded reading room, computer room, and larger community hall to generate revenue by renting out. 3) The library now has full internet access thanks to donations of computers and funding for equipment, which will allow them to pilot internet programs for other Ugandan libraries.

1. Newsletter
March 2012
Kitengesa • New Library Building opened in January
• Library now has full Internet access
Community Library • Benefit Dinner on April 17 (see page 2).
Dear Friends, Composer, sang a song with the Women’s Group proclaiming that
they, the women, were heroes. Liliana Hertling, one of the Ameri-
It’s unusual for me to write can guests who came to stay with us for the occasion, filmed this
to you all in the middle of song and has posted it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/
the academic year, but the watch?v=U00ZT3QRp7Q.
January just past has been
an extraordinary month for
the Kitengesa Community
Library, and I must tell you
about what has been hap-
pening.
The Big Event was the of-
ficial opening of our library
building on January 18.
Uganda’s Vice President,
who comes from a village
a few miles down the road,
was invited as the Guest of Honour, and he came complete with
entourage, albeit a couple of hours late (but that’s normal be-
haviour in politicians). Some two or three hundred other people There you can see Angella (in dark green), who learned how
came as well, including the representatives of about fifty of the to read in the library and became one of our most avid readers;
96 libraries that are now members of the Uganda Community Li- Margaret (in white with red flowers), who organized the women’s
braries Association (UgCLA). Kitengesa is a leader amongst those chair-renting project; Josephine (in a white top and dark skirt),
libraries, and we held the Association’s annual conference in the whose children were among the first to come regularly to the
nearby town of Masaka over the preceding two days so that the library; and Julius, Moses’ brother, who gave me the idea of the
participants could come to the occasion before returning home. Library Scholarship programme, and who is now in charge of the
library’s new computer centre.
The new building includes a reading room of the same size as
the old one-room library, a slightly smaller computer room, and
a much larger community hall. This hall will enable us to raise
a revenue for the library
since we will rent it out
for meetings and par-
ties—the local MP has
already asked to use it.
But we will also use it
for our own purposes,
with one corner specially
designated for children
and another for the Fam-
ily Literacy Project that
It was a typical Ugandan Function, with speeches from Mawa- we run with the Women’s
nda and me, as co-founders of the library, from my husband, Group; and the space
Kasozi, as Chairman of the Library Board, and, of course, from will be invaluable for the
the Vice President. But the highlights for me were the Mass hordes of primary school
at the beginning—at which the choir, including several of the children that come to the
library’s Women’s Group, sang with extraordinary beauty—and library every week.
the “entertainment” in the middle—in which Moses, our Library
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2. Kitengesa Community Library Newsletter - March 2012
But there’s still more: the computer room has now been set up And, should you be inspired to send us a cheque, FAVL will always
with built-in desks round the walls for computers; and our good be happy to receive it for us. We have a prospect of revenue now,
friends of the Maendeleo Foundation (see www.maendeleofoun- but I don’t expect it to cover more than the librarians’ salaries.
dation.org) gave us last July six Intel Classmate computers. Then We will still be dependent on your generosity for supporting Li-
this January the Hawk Children’s Fund of the University of Mary- brary Scholars, buying books, and organizing programmes.
land Eastern Shore campus (UMES) gave us funds to buy four
more laptops as well as additional solar panels to power them and But see what your generosity has achieved already!
a wireless modem-router with one year of unlimited airtime. “Nayanziza,” we say in Luganda, thank you very much, for you
have helped us build a vibrant institution that is both promoting
literacy in Kitengesa and its neighouring parishes and setting an
example for nearly a hundred other libraries across Uganda.
Please make checks out to FAVL (Friends of African Village
Libraries) and mail them to FAVL, P.O. Box 90533, San Jose, CA
95109-3533. Write “Kitengesa Community Library” on the memo
line of the check.
Thank you!
Kate
So now the Kitengesa library has full access to the internet! The
next thing is to find funds to train people in using it, and we
are working out systems for getting users to pay for airtime once
our initial year’s supply runs out. As you may imagine, this is an
enormous step forward for the library, and indeed for the whole
of UgCLA, for the systems and programmes that we develop here
will serve as pilots for national projects.
So, please, rejoice with us! For those of you who are within reach
of New York City we are organizing a special celebration on April
17—a party at a midtown restaurant where you can see pictures
and videos, buy a few Ugandan items (including UgCLA’s newly
published picture books for children), and meet some of the
people who have worked with Uganda’s community libraries. For
the rest of you, we are busy updating the library’s and UgCLA’s
websites, and you can get more information about our doings
from the blog run by our umbrella organization, Friends of Afri-
can Village Libraries (FAVL, at www.favl.org).
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