Nyumburu Cultural Center Project to Provide Books to Ugandan School Children

[XXPANTHAXX]

Benefit to Provide Books to Children in Uganda

Dear Community Partner,

Knowledge is Power, and for those of us who have had the opportunity to
become educated, we know the power of both education and knowledge. I’m
asking you to participate with me in a project that will ensure the
power of knowledge and education will also benefit our young brothers
and sisters in Africa.

Nyumburu Cultural Center at the University of Maryland has committed to
raising support for text and library books for four secondary schools
and school libraries in war-torn Northern Uganda and I am chairing the
project. For more information about Nyumburu Cultural Center please
visit: Nyumburu Cultural Center

A brutal twenty-one year war in Northern Uganda which began in 1986
displaced over two million Acholi people from their traditional villages
to squalid refugee camps. The worst effects of this war have been on
children and youth.

More than 30,000 children were abducted and forced into child soldiering
and sex slavery by the Lord’s Resistance Army which declared war on the
Government of Uganda in 1986.

The Acholi people were caught in the middle; several hundred thousand
people died from the effects of this war, tens of thousands of women
were raped and mutilated and hundreds of thousands of children were
orphaned.

In Northern Uganda, children and youth are avid learners and eager
readers but the displacement to camps from the war has made it difficult
for families to afford secondary school fees and most schools in
Northern Uganda lack sufficient text books and libraries for high
quality education.

We have committed to a books-for-schools campaign that will help to
transform learning in four secondary schools in Northern Uganda .

Our partners in this project are the United Movement to End Child
Soldiering, (UMECS) anchored in Uganda and based in Washington, DC, and
Books for Africa, in St. Paul, MN.

United Movement to End Child Soldiering (UMECS) is having huge impact in
Northern Uganda through its education and peace building programs.
Anchored in Uganda since 2004, a Registered NGO there and also a
501(c)(3) non profit organization here, UMECS is dedicated to
eradicating child soldiering and addressing the education and
rehabilitation needs of children and youth affected by conflict.

UMECS runs the Northern Uganda Education Program which sponsors former
child soldiers, child mothers and other children and youth affected by
conflict in secondary schools through higher education. UMECS’ all
Northern Uganda education staff also administers school-based programs
to help their 14 partnered secondary schools provide holistic needs and
quality education.

UMECS and their chief institutional partner Africa University piloted a
first-ever school-based Counseling and Guidance Program at Lira Palwo
Secondary School in Pader District, Northern Uganda which they are now
replicating.

They are also piloting a school-based Peace Education Program, and
conducting a books-for-schools project in Northern Uganda . For more
information about UMECS, please visit: United Movement To End Child Soldiering

UMECS’ partner in the books-for-schools project is St. Paul, MN-based
Books for Africa which for the past nineteen years has been sending high
quality text and library books to primary and secondary schools in
twenty-five African nations.

For $13,000 assembly, packing and shipping costs, Books for Africa will
be shipping 35,000 well selected school books (approximate retail value:
$150,000) and ten computers to four secondary schools in Northern
Uganda.

We are leading the campaign to raise these funds which will bring needed
books to classrooms and libraries at Sacred Heart Secondary School in
Gulu District; Alliance College Secondary School in Kitgum District;
Lira Palwo Secondary School in Pader District and a secondary school in
Amuru District in Northern Uganda. For more information about Books for
Africa, please visit Books For Africa

To kick start the campaign, we are pleased to announce that the National
Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) contributed $1,413 to the
project, giving us a current target goal of $8,492.

Equally exciting is the fact that the Black History Month Committee of
the University of Maryland agreed to make our fundraising drive their
service learning project this past February. Five individual groups have
so far committed their support and this number will grow. We will be
conducting trainings to ensure the service learning component of this
campaign builds student skills for future projects.

Your immediate support of this project will help to create momentum for
this campaign and tangibly contribute to the empowerment of war-affected
children and youth in Northern Uganda by providing the books needed for
their classrooms and libraries. Here’s how you can help now.

1. Please make your tax deductible check payable to: Books for Africa

2. Please note on the memo part of the check the following:
UMECS/Nyumburu Books for Schools in Northern Uganda

3. Please send your check to:

Nyumburu Cultural Center
Nyumburu Building #232, Suite 1120
ATTN: Solomon Comissiong
College Park, MD 20742