Esther Kyazike, the proprietor of Kawempe Youth Centre, a public library

By Joel Ogwang

HE dashes into the library, pays the user fee and picks an economics textbook from the shelf. Shamil Kiggundu, an S.6 student of Motherland Academy, sits down to read.

“The library is conducive for reading because it is quiet and I can utilise the textbooks,” he says. In just two minutes, seven students make a beeline for the library.

“Many students come to the library to access books that are not available at their schools,” says Esther Kyazike, the proprietor. “Some of them are university students doing research.”

In 1998, Kyazike conceived the idea of starting Kawempe Youth Centre, located in Kizza zone, Kawempe I Parish.

“My parents couldn’t afford textbooks,” she says. “The only valuable books I owned during secondary school were a Bible and a pure maths textbook.”

Despite passing her A’ level exams, Kyazike failed to make it to her dream university, Makerere because of financial hardships.

Instead, she enrolled for an Association of Chartered Certified Accounts course at Multitech Accountancy Programme. However, when her father, Sam Sebadduka, lost his job as a warden at the Law Development Centre, she dropped out of school and stayed at home for three years.

During this time, she collected money and enrolled for a diploma in Library and Information Science at Makerere in 1998.
Driven by her passion, in 1999 Kyazike partnered with Judith Grootscholten, a Dutch student, to start a mini-library at Kawempe Muslim Primary School.

“I wanted to work with the youth to make a difference in their lives,” she says.

Plan International, a charity organisation, aided the project. The Netherlands Embassy donated a photocopier for commercial purposes and 150 textbooks.

About 200 schools which lacked libraries at their schools started using the facility, necessitating expansion.
With sh12m funding from Wilde Ganzen, a Dutch organisation bought land and set up Kawempe Youth Centre in 2005.

“The land was bushy and being used as a garbage site. I mobilised the youth and we cleared the area,” she says.

Kyazike’s vision is to have a generation of informed, independent and self-reliant youth. The library offers computer training, education, recreational facilities, secretarial and stationary services.

It has six computers. Children also have their recreation area where they read and play. It is furnished with 1,000 books. Most books are bought in Kampala bookshops, while others are donations from libraries abroad.

A student must pay sh5,000 monthly as membership and sh500 every time one accesses the library. One must also present a valid school identity card. Orphans access the library for free.

Games at the recreation facility include volleyball, basketball scrabble and draft. “On weekends, we screen movies. We also take educational features to schools,” Kyazike says.

Under a mobile library scheme, Kawempe Youth Centre has partnered with 10 primary schools that are, each, visited every term.

The library liaises with Makerere University under the Commonwealth Youth Programme and takes internship students to visit schools, organises debates and carries out health and sanitation drives.

Background
Kyazike was born to Sam Ssebadduka and Ruth Ssebadduka in Kasubi, Rubaga Division in 1971.
From 1977 to 1984, she went to Buganda Road Primary School. She went to King’s College, Buddo for O’level from 1984 to 1988. She attended A’ level at Makerere High.

Despite being born in Rubaga, Kyazike started the library in Kawempe because the schools did not have a public library compared to Rubaga.

Achievements
Kawempe Youth Centre employs five staff and four volunteers. Plans are underway to source funding. Kyazike wants to expand the reading room to accommodate another 200 students and get 2,000 books more.

Activating their website, www.kawempeyouthcenter.org, is also top on their agenda.
“Most of our schools don’t have libraries with up-to-date books like the one at Kawempe Youth Centre,” says Godfrey Ssonko, the Kizza zone, Kawempe parish LC I chief. “I hope many public libraries can be started all over Uganda.”

Kawempe Youth Centre has registered over 30,000 clients since inception.
Kyazike gives her clients what Martin Luther King gave Americans —inspiration and the hope that through knowledge, life can change for the better.

Challenges
School heads have accused the library of influencing students to join other schools. “A teacher once came to the library and drove his students out with a cane,” Kyazike says.

The library does not have adequate funds to run effectively, for instance, staff members do not earn enough money. There have also been cases of book theft.

Revenue is only generated from user fees and secretarial services.
“When a student is caught stealing a book, he is banned from accessing the library.”

But despite the hurdles, Kyazike believes the library will expand and benefit more students.

Do you know any woman who has made a difference in her community through innovation, value addition in medicine, research, science and technology? Send your nominations to features@newvision.co.ug, or write to the Features editor, The New Vision, P.O.Box 9815, Kampala