The huge rural population of young people in Wakiso, Uganda has little access to libraries and community centres. The Centre for Youth Driven Development Initiatives wants to build a community centre to serve the hundreds of young people in our area. We will provide a safe space to foster a culture of reading, and offer opportunities to develop entrepreneurship and community organisation skills. This will be a place to learn how to stay healthy, develop computer skills, play sports and have fun!
Uganda has a large youth population and, as a result of poverty, there exists a high rate of school drop-outs and few after-school job opportunities. This is even worse in the rural communities, like Ndazabazadde, where CFYDDI work. There were no libraries or community centres in the area until we started renting a small building; we were overwhelmed by how many people wanted to attend but the small space, lack of electricity and limited funds for activities have restrained our capacity.
This project will expand our work by constructing the first community centre and library in the area. A large library of shelves stocked with useful books will enable many young people to study and prepare for exams, while training groups in entrepreneurship and community organisation will ensure young people can fulfill their potential. We will install electricity so visitors can use the centre late into the evening and provide a recreational space for community mobilisation and sports games.
At its busiest, our current space has hosted 300+ people at a time! During school holidays we have 50+ library daily users, with a monthly average of 600+ visitors including children and young people, women, farmers, doctors and teachers. With a bigger space, more books and electricity there's no telling how many people we will reach! Having space to conduct vital training and offer guidance will enable us not just to improve the livelihoods of our visitors, but to develop the entire community.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
