Today’s 365 brings us back to the Nakivale library. The library is looking for new books that will be fun and engaging! What is more engaging than Harry Potter? Nothing! The Changemakers team was able to purchase 56 copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in French and in English! These books will make the stories accessible to readers of all ages and all cultures! Now residents of Nakivale can experience the magic of Harry Potter! … [Read more...] about Bringing Magic to Nakivale Community Library
Changemakers365
One of the Good Ones
Today is all about the recognition of an amazing person who also happens to be a mother. The Assistant Commandant in Nakivale, Ms. Justine Gonza, has been an incredible partner and friend to Alight. She has by an advocate for the secondary school Rubondo, which Alight helped fund. She also has been helpful to the host community of Uganda in making sure their voices are heard. “Justine has shown unconditional love by uniting and advocating for both the refugee and host community co-existence and wellbeing in Rubondo community, through these engagements the community is able to receive first-class services from all the implementing partners,” explained Andrew, an Alight team member. To show our support for Justine, the team wanted to surprise her on Mother’s Day with an award for her service. “Ms. Gonza, we appreciate you today for your sincerity and generosity during the time you are needed. You have always been a mother to the community and the staff around you and today we … [Read more...] about One of the Good Ones
Community Gardens
Conflicts and wars are not just disruptive but also destructive to both human lives and activities including farming. A once-happy self-reliant community of Pure and Kiri in Kajo-Keji was forced to abandon farming as their main source of livelihood to stay in Korijo IDP camp after the conflict in 2017. While in Korijo IDP camp, most of the community were forced to travel to the refugee camps in Uganda to receive the food ration or risk going back to their original homes within the county to harvest from their abandoned farms. “With war, you can’t do anything. We were forced to abandon our fruitful and fertile land for safety in Korijo IDP camp where there was barely any food. We had to risk our lives to collect abandoned food in the garden or cross to Uganda for food ration” narrated Juru, a member of Mother to Mother Support Group (MtMSG) in Pure. The food crisis among some women was partly resolved when Alight came up with a great idea of introducing the kitchen garden … [Read more...] about Community Gardens
A New Garden
Variety is the spice of life and plays a key part in nutrition. Today’s Changemakers 365 project is all about food and mixing it up! The Alight team in South Sudan has a plan to improve customers' diets as well as their income. Through kitchen garden trainings, the team can teach about the importance of nutrient-rich gardens and how to grow the food. The team gathered groups of mothers who had an interest in expanding their knowledge of gardening. The trainings went incredible and the gardens flourished. “The kitchen garden has greatly added to my financial status. I now own a goat and two chickens at my home from the money I got from sharing the sale of the kitchen produce” said Aker Akol Bol, the lead mother of the mother-to-mother support group. Another member of the group, Aguak Deng Wol, said, “I am very lucky to have benefited from the kitchen garden project. After acquiring the knowledge from the group, I felt empowered to start growing my own vegetables at home. I … [Read more...] about A New Garden
A New Clean Space
Today, our Changemakers 365 journey takes us to South Sudan. Mothers in the Aweil West County who attend our nutrition programs have wished for a better experience. Currently, the program only has a patch of dusty ground to teach from. When classes get long, sitting on the dusty ground for hours at a time is unappealing and makes returning to sessions less likely. Alight team members saw an opportunity to improve our services! By getting mats and blankets, they can completely transform the experience for the customers. "We are no longer sitting on the bare ground/floor that always dirtied our clothes when getting services. But now we are happy we have enough sitting mats, thanks to Alight for increasing mats in our facility", a mother in Lolding nutrition site. Great work Changemakers! … [Read more...] about A New Clean Space
Reopening Education
As the COVID-19 cases decline in Uganda, schools are reopening! This is wonderful news for students and teachers alike! Due to the quick pace of the reopening, there was a problem, schools hadn’t collected school fees in a year, and supplies were limited. This is where Changemakers 365 comes in! Our team worked with the teachers to figure out what they needed to teach their classes. They came up with a list: laptops, projector, projector screen, notebooks for teachers, textbooks, cleaning materials, hand sanitizer, moveable chalkboard, chalk sticks, drawing boards, thermometer gun, and art materials. The team got right to work and went to procure the items for the teachers! The teachers were delighted to receive the new school supplies! “Most of our students have not yet paid their school fees and that’s means we are not able to provide to the teachers all the necessary equipment’s required for the teaching, with this support the teachers will be able to teach the … [Read more...] about Reopening Education
Growing Smiles
The focus of today’s 365 idea is to beautify the library. Library staff wants to create an exciting space outside of the library to match the inside. A wonderful plan was hatched to make the outdoor space for learning as well! The idea was a kitchen garden! Kitchen gardening is something anyone can do and enjoy. It helps make the community greener and supplies delicious and nutritious food. This garden had herbs, vegetables, and fruits - and who doesn’t like a nice fresh piece of fruit?! "We will have lots of green vegetables to balance our diet. This had greatly inspired me to start up a small-scale vegetable gardening at home for self-reliance" says 36-year-old. Ivan Nyarimana Congolese security guard at the library The garden is now growing and so is the anticipation of the delicious food to come. … [Read more...] about Growing Smiles
The Library is for Everyone
Today the library is hosting an ideation session from the surrounding communities. Their goal is to learn what the community is looking for out of their library experience and what could be improved upon. They invited the neighboring community of Oruchinga to visit and share their ideas. Oruchinga had wonderful ideas! They suggested a sister library in Oruchinga to get more people in the community reading. They didn’t stop there. They came up with monthly debating competitions among the youth, a mobile library, and so much more. The ideas flowed for hours! At the end of the session, all the ideas were taken down by the library staff. They will consider what can be done now and what can be done in the future. The community members left feeling excited and inspired! … [Read more...] about The Library is for Everyone
Professional Development
Everyone can use a little professional development! There’s always room for improvement. Maybe it's brushing up on interview skills or learning new ways of managing people, no matter what skill are always ways to be improving. Today in the Nakivale library, the staff wanted to provide just that – a learning opportunity. The team offered training in a ton of different topics! The topics were teamwork, conflict resolution, time management, communication skills, ways of promoting the library, customer care, and handling, and general information on the management of the information resource Centre. The training was a great success! When asked about the experience, Obadiah associate librarian said that “This is very good for us as incentive workers because such workshops help us to acquire new knowledge concerning the library.” Carine Muhoza an incentive worker said that “this is a very good treat for library staff I feel thought about. Excellent idea library crew and way to … [Read more...] about Professional Development
Extra Extra, Hear All About It
The Nakivale community library is a hub of information and learning. The perfect place to visit and connect with others. Inside the building is a thriving community. But what about the outside? Today, our story is all about spreading information outside of the library. Our teams knew that there was a problem with the spread of information about what the library was. People see the building but didn’t know what it was or how to use it. Our teams wanted to spread the message and spread the message fast so we got right to work. Hiring a communication van, a large vehicle with a speaker on top of it that spreads a message like an audio billboard, the message was out! The van told about the services the library offered - art classes, reading classes, storytelling sessions, and much more. “I was seeing the big building in the fence and I didn’t know what was going on inside there, now that you have informed us. I will be a regular user of the library, thank you Alight for … [Read more...] about Extra Extra, Hear All About It