Edition 16: Young Ugandans impacting lives of the less vulnerable, one book at a time Written by Adv. Brownie Ebal

TURNING POINT

As a World at School Global Youth Ambassador for Education in Uganda, I was honoured to attend the Youth Assembly at the United Nations. There, I met a 15-year-old girl who started her own Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) called Pencil Foundation that donated pencils to children in Africa. Her bravery challenged me. I wondered why I kept holding myself back with excuses that I was too young or not rich enough to help the world.?

Motivated by this young lady, I sat down with friends and together we decided to set up an NGO. We named it "Kitabu-Buk" project.? Kitabu means book in Swahili while Buk has the same meaning in Luo, my mother tongue.

The NGO we started collects used and new books from Ugandans who have excess and distributes them to schools to help with their learning. We also provide children with career guidance at our donation events.

GETTING BOOKS FROM HOME

After this discussion with my friends, I went back home and made up my mind to help with the resources that I had. Since we had books at my home, I realised that we needed to donate them to children who could not afford them.

FIRST DONATION EVENT

On 12th August, 2014, I organised this event with the help of a group of friends. They were able to share their experiences with the students and also helped with career guidance for children to stay in school.

DONATIONS

We received book donations from various entities like MK Book Publishers, World Vision which donated over 2000 textbooks, and Nabisunsa and Bweranyangi Girls' schools. All these materials were to be given to various schools. Pepsi Uganda also donated sodas to some of the schools we went to.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

The New Vision, a newspaper of wide circulation in Uganda, wrote an article about the work we do as Kitabu-Buk project. This inspired many young people to join the NGO and make a change in the lives of children.

FUNDRAISERS

Though the Kitabu-Buk Project has carried out different fundraisers, the most significant ones have been the door-to-door fundraisers where we’ve collected books and sold various African materials to raise money from people's homes.

DONATION EVENTS

Since inception, we have impacted the lives of over two million Ugandans and donated over 100,000 textbooks and 3000 scholastic materials to twenty-five schools in the country.?

We have donated to the most vulnerable in society which include the deaf and those in war-torn areas.

ATTAINING HERO STATUS

One of the American Charity organisations named me as a hero in Uganda because of the work the Kitabu-Buk project was doing to change the lives of children.

https://theirworld.org/news/global-youth-ambassador-brownie-is-named-as-a-8216-ugandan-hero-8217/

QUEEN'S YOUNG LEADERS AWARDS

In 2016, I was chosen as a Highly Recommended Runner up Queen's Young Leaders Award for the work Kitbau- Buk Project has been doing.

Kindly visit our website for more information.

https://kitabubukproject.org/

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