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Since February 2013, Xavier Project has been taking the love of reading to schools with high populations of refugee children around Kampala. 

The success of the mobile library and the stream of children coming by the office just to read has made it clear to Xavier Project that it is time for a physical library for kids to come and enjoy reading.  

Initially the mobile library involved Xavier Project’s Education Director putting books in a bag, visiting the schools one morning a week for two hours, and reading with classes of 60-80 students. But we soon found that this was not an effective way of teaching reading, particularly as students who are struggling may not improve much without closer attention. So we modified the strategy, and instead took students out of class in groups of 5-8 for 15 minutes.

In overcrowded, under-resourced schools, reading is particularly difficult to teach. After surveying 27 districts in Uganda, Uwezo found that 98% of students in Primary 3 and 28% of students in Primary 7 cannot read texts of Primary 2 difficulty (see http://www.uwezo.net).

One way of addressing the problem could be to donate books to primary schools. But if we gave books to one school, only one school would benefit. So in 2013 Xavier Project created a Mobile Library. The success of that has driven Xavier Project to start a physical library to be a place where kids can come read for fun and the mobile library would have a permanent base. 

Activities at the library will include:

• Free reading;
  
•  Homework space with access to textbooks;
  
• Remedial classes for refugee students;
  
•  Reading club;
  
• Teacher training workshops;
  
• Extracurricular camps for Xavier Project sponsor students;
  
•    English courses;
  
•  Office for Xavier Project Education Department.