Biblionef donates storybooks for Sunshine Urban Foundation (SUF) in Kampala’s slums (Uganda)
A staggering nine out of ten children cannot read by age ten, a statistic that underscores the urgent need for investment in foundational skills. The learning crisis not only limits individual children’s potential but also impacts Uganda’s economic growth and social stability. By ensuring that every child especially girls gain foundational skills through preschool and primary education, Uganda and especially poor urban slum communities can establish a solid foundation for sustainable development, improved health outcomes and empowered communities in line with the aspirations of Uganda’s 2040 vision.
Sunshine Urban Foundation (SUF) therefore focuses on preschools and primary schools to empower teachers with skills and resources needed to equip their learners with strong foundations in literacy and numeracy while also supporting the inclusion of children with mild and moderate disabilities into quality education programs. Storybooks are the means to do so.
SUF works with families, teachers and local leaders as catalysts for change to address generational poverty and barriers to learning including a lack of reading materials. Partner schools, located in the communities they serve, are far more than just places to learn to read, utilizing a teaching methodology that develops literacy through the discussion of real-life local problems, SUF’s goal is to support schools to become strong community hubs where families come together to identify the social issues facing their communities and the steps they can take to solve them.
SUF also develops and adapts relevant reading materials, books and stories written in a child’s first language – the one spoken in the home – making sure these are diverse and inclusive. All books, toys and resources are available to children through book banks, libraries and reading camps targeting the most vulnerable children, refugees and schools in low resource settings in urban and peri-urban communities in and around Kampala city. After-school reading clubs and monthly reading activities in the community are led by teachers and local volunteers who use songs, games and stories to reinforce what children are learning in school. Book banks serve as portable libraries full of colorful story books. Younger and older children are paired as buddies to encourage reading for fun in school and at home and parents are taught how to support their children’s learning using low-cost or no-cost reading materials.
