Our Partners

1. The Lunyole Language Association (LLA) 

The LLA was founded in 1964 to actively promote the use of Lunyole in Uganda. The LLA has championed the writing and publishing of printed materials in Lunyole. BPL and LLA function in unison to promote reading culture and education in Butaleja. Click here to read more.

2. The Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA) 

UgCLA heads a network of community libraries in the country. The "UgCLA strives to complement the Uganda education system and promote the development of productive literacy practices by encouraging and supporting the growth of community libraries. It aims to establish and maintain a network of libraries and to cooperate with national organizations of similar interests, as well as with international organizations that are concerned with the promotion of literacy for development

UgCLA serves as a resource and source of information for BPL. UgCLA holds an annual workshop to discuss ideas, help with issues faced at the library and to train new librarians. They help with grant and book donation opportunities. In 2016, The UgCLA helped to to organize the 2 volunteers from Douglas College, Canada.

3. African Storybook Project (ASP)

The literacy level of African children in the early years of schooling continues to be low. One of the main obstacles to literacy in children is the drastic shortage of appropriate reading materials in languages familiar to the learner. ASP is an innovative program designed to increase the number of contextually and culturally appropriate books throughout Africa. The Lunyole Language Association, together with the Busolwe Public Library, have manage to support the creation of a number of stories which have been uploaded to the ASP website. Additionally, a number of schools in the community, such as Mugulu Integrated Primary School, Magambo Memorial Primary School, Vwirya Primary School, Mango Grove Junior School, Kaguja Education Center, Bubaali Primary School and Busaba Project School have started using the stories that are printed and available at the library.

4. Busolwe Women's Groups

BPL has partnered with three different women’s groups in Busolwe. The women work together with BPL and ASP to generate stories in both Lunyole and English. These stories are transcribed by BPL staff members and uploaded onto the ASP website for use by children, parents and teachers from around the district.

a) Hwanghimbe Women’s Group – Hwanghimbe means coming together in Lunyole, which is the essence of this remarkable group. Since 2011, the members come together do to weekly savings, peer counseling, charity work, and to organize sponsorship in the form of clothing and scholastic material for at-risk children. The group also hands out micro-loans to its members. Interest from these loans is used to buy resources for the group (chairs, tents etc) that can then be rented out to generate more income.

b) Tuluta Widows Group – Each week, under a beautiful mango tree, members of Tuluta Widows group gather. At the meetings, themembers focus primarily on weekly savings, creation and sale of straw mats, as well as joint agriculture.  In 2016, the group managed to invest in the purchase of a calf which they bought with the earnings from their groundnut and maize sales. In December 2016, BPL began a pilot project whereby selected women from the group will receive literacy training for the local Lunyole language.

c) Busolwe Community Women’s Co-op – The members of Busolwe Community Women’s co-op have enjoyed BPL as a meeting place. The focus of these weekly meetings is on individual savings. In the future, the group hopes to recruit more active numbers to expand their activities.

5. World Vision

Beginning in 2016, World Vision and BPL have developed a partnership to increase the Lunyole literacy rates in Butaleja. Board members of BPL and LLA have assisted with the training of Lunyole language teachers in Butaleja district. In addition, we have provided numerous hours of translation work for all of World Vision’s documents.

6. Douglas College, Canada

In 2008, BPL received a two year grant from Douglas College. This was used to pay for the librarian who had previously been working as a volunteer. In 2016, Douglas College partnered with BPL once more and sent over two interns as well as a financial contribution to help with the functioning of the library. 

7. The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada

UBC has partnered with BPL since 2008, and has sent over student volunteers on several occasions through its International Service Learning Program. This project is one of many that UBC and International Service Learning work on across the world and this specific placement focuses on rural literacy and community partnerships. 

8. Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)

Since 1999, BPL and SIL have had a successful relationship. SIL first helped in the construction of the building which now holds the library. Since then, they have helped supervise the LLA and the library in the translation of the New Testament, development of transitional literacy programs and creation of the Lunyole orthography.

9. Electronic Information for Libraries (eifl)