About Books of Hope..........1
Register & Get Involved!....2
Our Library.........................3
Questions? Contact Us ......4
The Memory Project...........5
How can I help? ................6
Stonebreaker Bracelets......7
Int'l School Enrollment ....8

Download and print our Uganda site description here

BOOK NEEDS: Our Ugandan schools need a wide variety of educational books at all levels. We have elementary, middle and high schools involved in Uganda, as well as a vocational college.

The people of northern Uganda have had their lives torn apart for over twenty years in a vicious civil war that has claimed their children as the primary victims. In one of the most tragic and underreported humanitarian crises in the world, tens of thousands of Acholi children have been stolen from their families and villages and forced to serve as soldiers for the rebel army (Lord's Resistance Army).

For many years, these children, in order to avoid capture in the middle of the night, would make their way every evening to urban areas where they could find protection from the LRA rebels by sleeping in makeshift shelters guarded by the Ugandan army. They eventually became known as the "Night Commuters."

At the height of the conflict in northern Uganda, around 1.7 million people were living in camps to avoid attack.

As of 2006, a tentative truce has allowed the Night Commuters to stay home with their families, but the war has traumatized countless children who were forced to commit unspeakable atrocities while in captivity.

The children who managed to escape or be rescued are reintegrated into their communities, but they face many challenges, not the least of which is making up for lost years of schooling. Unfortunately, the schools they return to do not have the resources to serve the various needs of such a unique population of students.

Books provided through Books of Hope go directly to the Acholi children and the schools and IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps that serve them. We send books to Gulu, Kampala, Kitgum, and Jinja, among other locations.

The children need to learn English in order to get ahead. Your books are invaluable tools in that process, even more so when they contain educational content (science, geography, grammar, mathematics, etc).

Most of all, your books are gifts of friendship and symbols of hope to children who, for a long time, have been considered "invisible" and forgotten.

To view a PowerPoint presentation about Books of Hope Uganda, please choose one of the following:

Elementary School PowerPoint
(softer language)

Middle or High School PowerPoint

To get started and to access more resources related to Books of Hope Uganda, please check out our registration process and timeline.