Jjaggwe Foundation Concept ( Process Building)

DRAFT OF A CONCEPT PAPER FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY/ EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER PROJECT IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION OF AFRICA (GLRA) UNDER THE NAME OF JJAGGWE FOUNDATION PUBLIC LIBRARY-EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER (JFPL-ERC) AN AFFILLIATE OF AFRICAN EMPOWEREMENT COMMUNITIES (AFRICOM):

WHAT IS JJAGGWE FOUNDATION ABOUT:

Jjaggwe Foundation is the civic educational and cultural core of our great communities in the Greater Masaka Region, set purposely to promote educational standards through reading and research enrichment, educational and cultural as well as access to the latest technology, with the promotion of advocacy and awareness of the use of Public Library as an Educational Resource Center.

Why Jjaggwe Foundation has come to intervene in establishing a Public Library Educational Resource Center in the Greater Masaka region and elsewhere in Uganda?

Based from sample final results released from of one the nations within the region, from the Primary Leaving Examinations for (PLE) for (P7), Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) for (S4), Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) for (S6) and those from Uganda Business & Technology Examination Board (UBTEB) students in Uganda, showed that there are still very big challenges in the education system within the region.

This was evidenced from last year's (2012) final results at all levels as mentioned above. See a summary of it from UNEB:

YEAR: EDUCATION LEVEL: ENROLMENT: REGISTERED: PASSED: FAILED: DROP-OUTS: ADMITTED:

2012 PLE (P7). P1 1996 -1,700,000 560,000 540,000 67,000 1,200,000. 316,000.

2012 UCE (S4).

2012 UACE (S6). S5 198,000 111,000.

2012 UBTEB.

N.B In a nutshell, from 1996 to 2012 those who started Primary One, only 109,000 were able to successfully complete their education circle of twelve years, leaving a drop-out of over 1,600,000 students whose destiny could not be traced.

There are a number of contributing factors including the following:

i) Less budget allocated to the Education Sector within those nations, thus, resulting to poor funding.

ii) Dilapidated archaic existing infrastructures, thus, creating unconducive educational learning environment.

iii) Lack of available infrastructures like enough classrooms to accommodate the influx number of enrolment thus, forcing students to study under sheds of trees, not enough furniture for students, thus enabling students to sit on the floor, lack of enough toilet facilities in schools and lack of the provision of library facilities.

iii) Lack of provision of mid-day school meals for both teachers and students.

iv) Poor staffing of teachers and lecturers and also poor remuneration of the teaching personnel within public government Aided institutions. Typically a minimal monthly salary of a primary school Grade Three certificate teacher earns $120 whereas a Diploma Education holder earns $180 monthly.

v) Commercializing the education system, thus, students from well to-do families being catered in highly expensive institutions leaving students from poor families to attend in public institutions running Universal Education which are very poorly funded and restricted with government laws under the Universal Primary & Secondary Education.

vi) Due to proper provision of both scholastic and instructional materials required in schools for both the learners and teachers.

vii) The education system emphasizing theoretical practices rather than practical ones.

viii) Due to the failure of provision of modern Digital technology, computer science is only available in some few urban schools with the provision of electricity, where 99.9 % have no any idea of computer knowledge.

ix) Unavailability Libraries and Internet facilities for both the students and teachers in most institutions within the region.

x) Lack of sanitation facilities especially to the Adolescent girls who improvise by the use of leaves of trees during their monthly periods (MP), also with no provision of clean water for use at schools.

xi) Due to availability of essential utilities like electricity, where majority of students use kerosene lumps to do for their homework and night studies.

N.B Based from some of the mentioned listed challenges in the education system within the Great Lakes Region of Africa has resulted into the catastrophe of the following:

i) High school drop-out of students from schools before completion their school complete education cycle.

ii) Poor performance at the end of their final examinations.

iii) Caused the high rate of unemployment of the Youth in the region which the governments have neglected to plan for them..

iv) Increase of Urban shifting/ migration from rural areas, thus causing insecurity within the nation due to redundancy.

v) Wasted manpower due to the high school drop-outs and poor academic performance.

It's amazing to see that the Great Lakes Region's educational standards which used to be the best South of the Sahara are now in appalling state. The educational standards in most educational institutions slide into oblivion in just a few decades for reasons best know by the government as due to less budget to cater for education necessities including neglect of library establishment and enhancement in its institutions/schools.

Jjaggwe Foundation, will advocate to the following:

i) Register Jjaggwe Foundation as a non-for profit and a non- partisan entity.

ii) Invest in Vocational-Technical institutions.

iii) Establish both the Traditional and Digital synergy to solve one of the major challenges of Education in the Great Masaka region and in Uganda at large.

Below are some of the advantages of Digital Libraries establishment:

i) Its much easier to locate desired information.

ii) The information is always available and accessible unlike in Traditional Libraries where books can be borrowed out or destroyed by users.

iii) Enable students and other users can compete with the best in the World without access to resources that is what makes this intervention so appropriate and finally.

iv) There are without walls so the user accesses information at any time, anywhere, in the world using internet-enabled computers thus providing near endless stream of resources such as journals, magazines and so on to the users.

In a nutshell, it's a brilliant decision to identify a strategic area of intervention such as learning resources, as access to relevant and up-to-date academic resources are a major challenge in the Third World countries like in Uganda, where the government is still in struggle to meet the basic needs of the educational sector.

VARIOUS DEFINITONS OF WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY/EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER:

There are different definitions from different sources that try to describe what a Library/ Educational Resource Center is:

-A Library/ an Educational Resource Center is a creation of various shared learning materials or books of libraries where scholars could go to search information and new ideas from various sources of avenues that they didn’t have to own.

-A Library/ an Educational Resource Center is a warehouse for informational materials worth sharing.

-A Library/ an Educational Resource Center is the local nerve center for information.

-A Library/an Educational Resource Center is a place where people do come together to do co-working and co-ordinate and invent projects worth working on together.

-A Library/ an Educational Resource Center is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In more traditional sense, a Library/an Educational Resource Center is a collection of various learning and instructional learning educational materials.

-This is a place where over one thousands things could be done in a place all built around under one mission: “Take The World, Data, combine it with the people in the community and create a value”.

-A Library/an Educational Resource Center room contains collections of books, periodicals, magazines films and recorded music CDs for people to read, listen, view, borrow or refer to.

-A library is a place with shared books, and plenty of fun books, hopefully inculcating a lifelong love of reading, because reading makes people more thoughtful, better-informed and more productive members of a civil society.

N.B There is a wrong perception that libraries are just a place for books, but in the modern era, a Library/an Educational Resource Center, is a place where various educational information, and various categories of books, Audi-visual materials, Lectures, Authors, Discussions, Computers, various Educational Programs (workshops, Seminars etc), - collectively that make a tremendous resource in any given community (As defined by Linda Duttenhaver Los Angeles Public Librarian).

A Library/an Educational Resource Center acts as a public community center.

ROLE OF A LIBRARY/ EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER:

One major importance of a Library/an Educational Resource Center is that, it plays an important role in promoting the progress of knowledge to people who love to access various information and educational ideas but cannot afford to.

1. Supports education that helps to improve people’s lives.
2. A library is one of the greatest learning resources, that brings awareness of changing nature of libraries and pushing limits of hopefully open doors for other

1. Perform an outreach and trying to design and implement an innovative program of our choice.

1. Libraries experience natural partnership between Public libraries and public educational institutions (Schools).

1. Libraries teach theory based on practical practice by learning practical knowledge.
2. Provide services to students needing a safe environment for doing their homework, remedial classes and research work.
3. In a nutshell, Libraries are catalysts for changing in the crucial areas of social services in education, health, agriculture, employment, Youth Education etc.

MISSION STATEMENT OF JFPL-ERC:

1 To support and provide access to information and ideas that challenge and inspire, to explore strange new books, browse new information, seeking out new experiences, and to bodily take the public library where no public library facilities has gone before.

2 To bridge the digital divide by providing Ugandans Public Library-Resource Center with new technology.

N. B It’s startling to hear recent reports that 98 % of Ugandans still do not have Internet services at use. As more life essentials like applying for a job, money banking transactions, paying bills, or taking college courses, live tutoring help, remedial homework assistance, word processing programs, career resources, interacting with others at a distant (Face book) require the primary point of access for technology from the Internet, to computers and printers, to online tools such as online sutfing.
FOUNDATION’S MOTTO:

“Unlock the future for higher horizon”. (Potential and dependability are the best things

OUR MAJOR GOAL IS: To infinity and Beyond the Border!

To establish a point where opportunities for individuals create possibilities.

BROAD OBJECTIVES OF JJAGGWE FOUNDATION PUBLIC LIBRARY/ EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER:

i) To raise public Library/Resource Center for educational, Scientific, cultural programs and services that will try to address the FOUR Third World’s major obstacles which are: Ignorance, Poverty, Disease and Unemployment.

ii) To initiate strategic planning processes to ensure that the Foundation continues to innovate and meet the changing educational, social and economical needs of the people it is to serve.

iii) To enhance and seek for the Foundation’s support for Library programs and services by initiating efforts to build on the library‘s partnership with various stakeholders both at the national and at the international level.

iv) It has been noted that one of the major obstacles bedeviling education infrastructure, inadequacy ranks very high libraries.

To avail Library facilities not only at the heart of outstanding academic pursuits for both students and their teachers/lectures but to outreach various locations.

FOUNDATION’S CODE OF CONDUCT:

-Integrity- Sincerity & Honesty

-Readiness to serve others.

-Teamwork & Hard work.

-Respect of Customers.

-Transparency & Accountability.

-Practical Participation.

-A Sense of Time management.

TARGETED ORDIANCE/GROUPSYouth, Students and Teens at all levels, Business Entrepreneurs, Politicians, Researchers. Social workers and the General Public at large.

LOCATION:

Being that it will be a franchised project spread all over the region most especially in locations where they’re around educational institutions preferably of higher learning institutions in Uganda, for the start, a pioneer project will be set in Masaka the town center of the region and more to other locations. The location (s) will be made public through various channels like through the website www.jfpl-erc.org, the E-mail address jfpl-erc2013@gmail.com through pamphlets and brochures and other media means.

ROLES OF A LIBRARY/EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER:

-Different people benefit in many ways that include searching and accessing to different information from books, Internet, magazines, CDs’ etc.

-Students benefit how to improve on note-making and listening skills through remedial assistance.

-In order to enable students improve their academic studies, they will receive help in areas of study that many schools which do not have such available resources that include remedial and homework programs.

Help also people for job search and business connections and interaction through Internet use.

- Is a great stage because it contains all disciplines including interdisciplinary like reading, writing, research, theatre, cyber programs etc.

-It creates a sense of discovery that opportunity of access, access is about making that information, that intellectual content, the wisdom, that record of human history available to everyone.

-When you visit a Library/Educational Resource Center, you are excited to see the diverse ways people make use of the Library/Educational Resource Center, it’s about viewing an exhibit, or expressing the culture of a community you might not be familiar with or being a safe place for young people, it’s a place where people go to be with others.

-Through use of the Library/Educational Resource Center, people are able to find jobs; people have had the door open to a career or an academic interest because of a single book. It’s a comfortable, safe, simulative, and creative with people who are very different than others, where in a library people are all the same.

- Is a transformation institution. One of the challenges to be a Library/Educational Resource Center leader is to help people understand that.

-That people see the opportunities in how the library/resource center can have an impact on their community’s highest biggest issues.

-It gives to everyone an opportunity to meet people and participate in a community that may be different from one’s own.

-In a library/resource center, you are surrounded by books and computers is exhilarating and it makes feel optimistic that a nation will find a way to solve problems, to hold onto our values that include having someone in everyone’s life- a librarian- who is there to answer any question you might have, to help you get the information you need, to suggest what you might want to read and think about next.

-We are cultural institution of the world (John F. Szabo). The challenge is to make sure we are nimble/ resourceful and able to change- from making use of technology to ensuring that the public educational resource center/ library remains that most democratic institution.

-We should look into ways not only to preserve, protect, and organize content, but we also should look into opportunities where resource centers/ libraries can be places where people contribute and generate content, where people tell their stories to make the historic of people within the geographical region is available for many years to come.

Therefore, the potential for a better future is ultimately what has compelled Jjaggwe Foundation to support establishing educational franchised libraries/ educational resource centers in different locations in the region. The whole world is at your fingertips, if you walk into the Library/ Educational Resource Center.
OPERATION OF JJAGGWE FOUNDATION PUBLIC LIBRARY- EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTRE:

A set of regulations/ rules governing the Foundation will be set and a managerial team under the Board of Directors, Board of Trustees and an Executive committee will all be put in place.

FOUNDATION’S PROGRAMS:

The Jjaggwe Foundation Public Library Educational Resource Center is to be established to raise private sector support to benefit one of the nations’ most valued public resources.

The Foundation is to conduct various educational, cultural and scientific programs that will include the following:

i) Booking Reading & Borrowing.

ii) Internet Service.

iii) Digital collections - e-Books, e-Movies and Audi books.

iv) Adult Literacy Education (ALE).

v) Mobile Library,

vi) Identify Authors, philanthropists, individuals, corporations and Foundations in fundraising to support technology, educational and cultural programs that will sustain the Foundation’s system run.

In a nutshell, the Foundation will provide the following:

Enrichment of Book reading, borrowing of all kinds of educational materials including: Textbooks, Novels both in English and local languages, Magazines, Videotapes Films, CDs, Movies and Music, Printing, Photocopying, Fax Services and Internet Services.

For membership, borrowing services and Internet surfing will be available for them freely.

N.B One to become a member has to annual subscription membership fee as will be decided by the management.

WAY FORWARD FOR THE FOUNDATION:

- We know how quality of life improves when everyone has equal access to information, books and technology. Therefore, we are to exist to support those and advocate and innovate and also recognize those who will reflect the 21^st Century.

-One of the differences between a good library/resource center and a great library/resource center is philanthropy. There are to be people who believe and are willing to see a Library/Educational Resource Center go to greatness.

-We need to see a person who has the desire and ability to support cultural, scientific and educational institutions- without supporting the library.

-The Library Foundation will be a public with a public purpose, established to support the essential library programs of the public Library/Resource Center. (Ken Brecher).

-By working with the Foundation Public Library/Educational Resource Center, we are to create an environment where great ideas can come to the table to be discussed.

-We need people to say things about the Jjaggwe Foundation Public Library/Educational Resource Center that today would sound hyperbolic.

-We want people to say there’s no institution that has had a greater impact on helping young people to become school ready than the Jjaggwe Public Library/Educational Resource Center

- We intend to establish a wide range of programs and services that focuses on new technologies, addressing public health disparities, workforce development, and a deeper commitment to adult literacy and school readiness.

-No other institution in our community has had a greater impact on emergent literacy.

-We want people to say that the library has had a substantive difference on addressing unemployment, or that the resource center/library is one of the most valued cultural institutions in our entire region.

-We want people to associate the word impact with the Library/Educational Resource Center.

- This project intends to initiate jobs as a way of reducing massive unemployment in region.

- The foundation will accomplish its set mission through generous donors, fundraising, advocacy and innovative programs that will be instrumental in strengthening and providing critical support to the Library and also promote the greater awareness of the valuable resources.

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE VENTURE PROJECT:

Below are the proposed avenues which will sustain the project:

1. Through subscription membership fee.
2. Through selling some textbooks, novels, DVDs’, CDs’ and e-Books.
3. Through organizing workshops and Seminars.
4. A subsidiary poultry and piggery farm will be set to raise money to sustain the project.
5. Networking with International Educational Institutions like Universities, Colleges etc, Libraries and international agencies including different Charity organizations to support the venture.

SCHEDULED DAYS AND TIME FLAME:

N.B Below is the scheduled operational days for the Book Store/Library/Resource Center hours:

WEEK DAYS:

Mondays- Fridays from 10.00 a.m- 8.00 p.m

WEEKENDS:

Saturdays from 9.00 a.m – 6.00 p.m

PUBLIC DAYS AND SUNDAYS:

All Official Public Holidays will be closed.

.

CONCLUSION: Unlock the future for higher horizon, by subscribing to becoming a membership of Jjaggwe Foundation Public Library/ Educational Resource Center. "Knowledge is power".

N.B Remember our Motto is “Unlock the future for higher horizon”.

Eagerly looking forward to working with you, by bringing exceptional Library/Educational Resource Center services to all people within and enhances our roles as the national leader in innovative Library/ Educational Resource Center.

For more details about the Foundation, please visit:

Website: www.jfpl-erc.org

E-mail Address: jfpl-erc2013@gmail.com

Phones contacts: +1-818-201-7048 (USA).

Contacts in Uganda (East Africa): Will be communicated to you at a later stage.

Dennis L. Nnyondo.

Founder Executive Director.

Jjaggwe Foundation Public Library/Educational Resource Center.

N.B WHAT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE START:

1 Sets of textbooks of different disciplines/subjects numbering to over 4000 books are already in Uganda shipped from USA.

2 A larger Canon Photocopier and a Medium Office one a Printer, Scanner and Fax facilities with them are also already shipped to Uganda.

3 Already Established Center’s code of conducts/ regulations.

WHAT IS AGENTLY REQUIRED?

1 Estimated budget amounting to $15,000 (UGX 37,500,000 will be required to cater the entire required facilities including the following:

1 Funds for both to hire a location and later to buy its own land and also for salaries of would be hired personnel to run the center.

2 Personnel with skills to manage the Educational Resource Center,

3 To register with the National Library Board in Uganda.

4 Publicity of the business venture through various mass media, pamphlets, brochures etc.

5 Purchase more equipment required to facilitate the Center. Such equipment will include:

1. Furniture of all kinds that will include book shelves, chairs, tables, Computer shelves, Counter furniture etc.
2. More textbooks and learning and instructional materials.
3. Computers/ Laptops.
4. Magazines, DVDs’ and CDs for e-books and Movies.
5. Installation of solar power energy.
6. Surveillance cameras to detect wrong elements including thieves and the Center’s law breakers.
7. Scanning & adding machines.

My humble request goes to those with the technical know how amongst ouselves, to formulate this document in a professional recommended way following the table of contents as below;

1 Executive Summary.

2 Introduction.

3 Problem Statement

4 Goals & Objectives.

5 Proposed approach & strategy.

6 Implementation plan.

7 Monitoring and Evaluation.

8 Organization capacity & Managerial Structure.

9 Sustainability plan.

10 Activity schedule.