The OMACAN Mobile Libraries for Street Kids project will create 3 mobile libraries to give access to English literacy readers written by African authors to street children and to the educational organizations that partner with OMACAN’s Donna Watkinson Schools of Hope Program. Street kids face much discrimination from local communities and OMACAN a Canadian Charity has worked for past 6 years to transform the lives of street kids of Uganda’s most dangerous slums by creating opportunities for education and instructional programs for these marginalized children.

When we place Street Kids into local educational institutions they face much discrimination from the children, from the parents of the children and from the staff and management of the schools. OMACAN has been working with these kids to breakthrough these barriers. Our children, through, love, care and sponsorship and support have broken through to become in most cases in the top 5 students in each of their grades. These children have been denied education previously by lack of support and lack of shelter, but when given a chance these children excel and compete with the most privileged in their country.

A major challenge in Uganda’s education system is related to its national language English and the literacy of children in reading because there is a privileged access only to these readers. OMACAN, has experimented with a small collection of readers for the children along with some mentors have been able to see very significant changes in reading and comprehension results.

“OMACAN needed a partner to take this experiment further in an incremental way. OMACAN researched and discovered that Better World Books is exactly the kind of socially responsible and socially conscious organization who we would love to partner with. We applied for this years Literacy Grant Program, and were delighted to receive news that our project was selected to be awarded one of this years grants for $9,000”, said David Welling, President and Co-Founder. “We are absolutely thrilled and the street kids are excited that they soon would have access to readers in these libraries that will span all the grades into which they enter the education stream from Primary 1 to Primary 7” he added.

Thank you Better World Books for not only awarding OMACAN this grant but for your own bigger mission of making a difference in the world through literacy. Donna Watkinson Schools of Hope program members who sign up to standards of care and non-discrimination against street kids will now get access to these mobile libraries on a rotating basis throughout the school terms as an extra incentive to these institutions and communities to pave a way forward for these marginalized and often tortured children who before had no hope. When schools are on holiday breaks, the libraries will be moved to key locations in the Nyendo slum and Masaka town for street kids still living on the streets to access.