Nambi Resource Centre out to revive Uganda's reading culture

By GEORGE BITA
It is a Sunday afternoon when families often spend time together but in Igombe village, Jinja district, children from all walks of life descend to the community resource centre to read. The eagerness to access the facility is quite evident from their determined strides. Those riding bicycles race towards the building that has gradually changed the small village’s outlook.

On reaching the location, Issa Maganda, the librarian lets them in one by one taking care that they settle down in an orderly manner. The children’s library is the favourite for the youngsters who rush to pick their favourite books from the shelves.

Some read aloud while others do it in muffled voices oblivious to their surroundings. The librarian is on standby to help with grammar and other basic English skills. To an observer, it looks like a haphazard dash to read or revise books at Nambi Community Resource Centre. However, since 2010, a strictly adhered to timetable has been drawn out for residents to access the educational facility. School-going children from nearby institutions now go to the resource centre whenever it is their turn to study from the venue.

Maganda explains that the centre is now a major attraction to both youngsters and adults from Igombe village and beyond. “The response is overwhelming. This place is visited by over 100 children each week and a significant number of adults,” he says. According to him, adult learners have joined the bandwagon and sought adult literacy lessons from the centre.

“We have been forced to start a pioneer class of 35 elderly illiterate villagers in need of mastering English as well as business skills. These converge at the adult library every evening for classes,” he says. Faima Namwebya of Bright Angels Primary School observes that the resource centre helps children attend evening preps.

The children try their hands at computers

“Our school is over six kilometres away and a big section of the village lacks electricity so we take advantage of the well-lit library to revise at night. This unit also offers children an opportunity to interact with each other,” Namwebya says. She adds that some children had never seen a computer before and mistakenly thought that the centre’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department had several television sets.

Maganda explains that the ICT unit and Kirabo Gibwa children library are the most recent additions to the resource centre. Justin Kiyimba, the founder and patron says the centre was opened on February 24, 2007, in memory of his daughter, the late Irene Nambi Ssepuuya, a former New Vision sub-editor. “As a family we asked for views from the community about how best to remember Irene whom we were all very fond of.

The majority settled for a resource centre and it has been set up finally,” Kiyimba narrates. He attributes the achievements at the centre to God saying the task at hand has not been an easy one. Kiyimba says they got help from BookAid in the UK and Uganda Communications Commission that donated 40 computers to the ICT department . Kiyimba adds that the resource centre has over the years won over children from several schools. These are conducted within the respective premises of each participating institute. “With book-boxing, we occasionally organise with school authorities and ferry books in boxes to tents set up in school compounds.

The children then come to us and enjoy the reading sessions,” Kiyimba explains. Maganda notes that the annual book week festival brings in new members who afterwards keep frequenting the place to read more. Christine Tezira, a resident says the resource centre is providing a great service to the community with several children developing a positive attitude towards reading. The higher education state minister, John Muyingo, says that there is no better resource to give a community than a reading unit.