School+Books+for+Uganda

//Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.// - Nelson Mandela
In March of 2003, I learned of a number of books being held at a high school in Timberlea, Nova Scotia. The books had recently been replaced by newer editions and were about to be discarded due to lack of storage space at the school. In May of the same year I spent a month in the town of Mbarara, in southern Uganda, working with a mobile hospice as part of my undergraduate degree in International Development Studies. During my time there, I visited several schools and met a number of the students, teachers and headmasters. Whilst hearing their stories and seeing the limited amount of resources on their library shelves, I couldn't help but recall the many books at a school on the other side of the world that were about to be discarded later that year. Thinking of the injustice of it kept me awake at night, and by the time I left Uganda I had decided that I would somehow devise a plan to send the books to some of the schools I had visited.

Upon my return to Dalhousie University that summer, I took a course in project planning and management as part of my major in IDS. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to actually plan and implement my project. After two years of further considerations, much organization, plenty of help from friends and family, a reasonable shipping quote from Schenker of Canada, the generosity of the local Rotary Club in agreeing to write tax receipts on my behalf, $2500.00 fundraised, and many phone calls to Uganda, nearly 1000 kg of books finally arrived in Mbarara. Dan Gerber, an American fellow with whom I had worked at the mobile hospice, was able to distribute the books amongst ten schools, and I received a letter of appreciation from each of them. Pictured below are one of the schools, its library, and Dan making a delivery, along with three of the ten letters I received.

To read my project proposal in its entirety, click on the following link.