African Storybook Used in Sudanese Refugee Camps in Rhino Camp, West Nile, Uganda

Sam Andema, an African Storybook Initiative (ASb) Steering Committee member, provided his observations on the update of the African Storybook Initiative in Arua, Uganda, in our previous newsletter.  In this brief article he reports on how the stories are being used in Sudanese Refugee camps on the Ugandan West Nile border.

Although the ASb stories are primarily written for children in early grades, some organizations have adopted them for their adult literacy programs. A case in point is that of the Finnish Refugee Council that is using the ASb stories to run their adult literacy programs at refugee camps for Southern Sudanese in Rhino Camp, along the River Nile Basin in North Western Uganda. When I asked Moses Maandebo Bakole who printed the books to explain to me how he got the books, he explained as follows: 


I am Maandebo Moses Baakole from Arua District, Uganda. I needed story books to supply the Finnish Refugee Council’s Functional Adult Literacy Program that trains Southern Sudanese refugees in the Dinka Language. I simply logged onto the ASb website and downloaded a number of books and identified the most appropriate books. I identified three books, translated them into the Dinka Language and printed 100 copies of each which are being used as readers by the refugees.

Moses was amazed to find out that the books could be downloaded and reproduced free of charge.


It felt like I had cheated someone even after knowing the books were absolutely free of charge. It makes what would have been complicated simple. The people I used to translate the books intend to continue translating as many books as they can into the Dinka Language even though they may not be required to by the Finnish Refugee Council. They want their language on the website too. I hope to upload copies of the storybooks on the ASb website.