Partnership has always been at the center of NITEO.
It is both the how and why of our work.
Partner organizations and individuals, who are rooted in the communities they serve, are what allow books to be distributed from Kelowna to Kampala to grassroots libraries throughout Uganda.
Supporting our partners so they can serve and support the children of their communities is how we further child literacy in Uganda.
(It is also how we are shaping our work in the Okanagan, partnering with local libraries, schools, volunteers, and aligned community organizations.)
Partner meetings were one of my favourite things of 2024.
These meetings involved sharing food together, having meaningful conversations, observing programs in action, and dreaming together about what is yet to come!
Partners like Felician, a recent graduate from medical school who is completing her internship this year and will soon be able to call herself Dr. Felician. On top of all this, Felician founded a library in a primary school in Bushenyi, western Uganda and helped the school to organize their very first D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read) Day.
Partners like Paul, who dreams of building a centre to serve the children of Nawampendo village. In the meantime, he brings books to the community for children to read while sitting on tires for chairs under a tree.
Partners like the Rotary Club of Gulu, who have seemingly endless passion to make a meaningful impact in northern Uganda. The members run community initiatives, such as launching a mobile library at Otema Almadi Primary School, on top of their full time jobs because they share the belief that literacy changes lives.
Partners like Sarah, who founded a nursery-primary school, is writing children’s readers and trying to publish, and wants to start an outreach to young mothers in the fishing community near her home. I want to be like Sarah when I grow up 🙂
Partners like Kevin, of Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, who participated in the NITEO-Read For Life literacy trainings in 2023 and 2024 and teaches children how to read during the school term breaks.
Partners like Janet and Esther, who quit their full time jobs as accountants to create the Whispers of Love Foundation for children in their community who can’t afford to attend school.
Janet and Esther are sisters and it was a special moment this July when I was able to take my sister to meet them! We were able to watch the dress rehearsal of “Little Red Riding Hood” which the children were preparing to perform for their parents over the weekend!
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Helen Keller