Education is one of the primary areas of Bread and Water for Africa® partner, Bega kwa Bega (BkB) work in Uganda.
One of the important education projects that BkB does is to provide textbooks and reading materials to schools in remote areas of the country.
“During 2018 and 2019 this was done in collaboration with two other organizations – Bread and Water for Africa® and Books for Africa,” stated BkB founder and director Conche McGarr who founded the organization in 1998.
Bega kwa Bega means “Shoulder to Shoulder in Kiswahili, and that is exactly what Bread and Water for Africa®, BkB and BFA have been doing for the past two years providing more than 22,000 books to 177 schools benefiting 54,878 students and 2,297 teachers – and that is in 2019 alone.
The way our partnership works is that BFA collected the books ordered by BkB, sorted them by category, packaged them and placed the books into a 40-foot sea-container. They also arranged all the shipping and government documents to get the books to Uganda.
Thanks to our supporters, Bread and Water for Africa® assumes the cost of actually shipping the books where they are received by BkB for distribution to the schools.
But BkB does more than simply give out books, the organization conducts periodic free Teacher Development Workshops where teachers from the rural schools attend and attend workshops and provided instructions on how to use the books and include them in their lesson plans.
During the four-day workshop in August, registration was limited to 100 trainees, but demand was so great that it was increased to more than 110 teachers who received training in topics including child development, how children learn, daily writing activities for students, effective teaching methods, math, and more.
Upon “graduation,” each teacher received a certificate of completion, at least two boxes containing hundreds of books and an assortment of teaching supplies.
“Thank you so much, this project could not have been done without your help and support,” said Conche. “Special thanks to the management, staff and supporters of Bread and Water for Africa®, Books for Africa and Bega kwa Bega for their help and consideration.”