Hello,

My name is Linda Nowakowski. I am an American but have been living in Thailand for most of the last 10 years. I am currently teaching in a BBA (Bachelor's of Business Administration) International program at Ubon Ratchathani University. In that position, I have also faced the problem of finding affordable textbooks in English which is why I am most interested in possible solutions to this problem.

I have been able to find sources of a number of books and materials that are available free on the web and have already done some downloading, reformatting (to maximize words per page and minimize paper usage and printing costs), printing and binding. I can do a book like that for a bit over .6 cents per page which makes it immanently more affordable than the copyrighted, published books.

I do have a Uganda connection as my PhD research will be in northern Uganda in the Amaru district working with Opok Farms.

Looking forward to working on this project.

Hey,

My name is Kasinja Tonny Henry, you can call me Kasinja because it distinguish me from any body else in the world. Am 23 years of age. I was born in a small village in masaka district in Uganda, so am a ugandan. I studied my primary and secondary school in a third world school in masaka where teachers were not enough to teach us and text books were not available because they were expensive.I left masaka and Joined Makerere University in Kampala city to study a degree in Agricultural Engineering, currently am in my final semester of study and am specialising in water resource engineering. In march 2007, i handed in my first A'level biology manuscript to MK publishers ( U ) LTD for publication to help poor students in uganda, it did not work out because the books turned out to be expensive. In the same month, 5 other friends proposed that we should start a charity group to write, publish and distribute books to poor students and third world schools with the aim of reducing illiteracy levels and poverty in uganda and also to bring equality in both students from urban and rural schools as they are competing for the same resources yet students in urban schools have all the necessary resources. We started off, some members wrote manuscripts but failed to publish because of limited resources. Now we embarked on volunteering in schools around Kampala and offer free teaching services to those who did not have enough teachers and availed notes to them. Last year , the schools we volunteered in should an improvement in perfomance of national exams and we were appreciated. This project i believe will work well not only in uganda but even in other developing countries. But what we need is commitment to come up with a good program. We need to publish by our selves, distribute the books and offer the voluntary services to schools. We also thought of starting our own charity schools to make an impact in the education sector, Since education is the key to sucess. Thank you very much. Keep discussing, we are almost there!!

Hi, My name is Kayemba Robert.I was born in masaka village in uganda. Am married with 3 children and my family is in kampala. I stopped schooling in secondary school because my parents did not have money to educate me.I went in mechanics and car repair career and i have spent over 10 years in this career. Currently am running a auto spare parts shop in Uganda. I have also been a driver. I liked the book project since the first time i saw it because it will answer the needs of many poor students and schools in uganda. I dont know much about book publishing but atleast with the distribution of the books, i can be of help. I pray that this project become a sucessful one. Thank you.

Hullo; My name is Nalubega Teddy, i was born in Kabowa, a small surbub in Kampala city. Am an undergraduate student in Makerere university persuing a degree leading me to the profession of Teaching. Am one of the first people who introduced the idea of book project for poor students in uganda. Many students in Uganda have a need of books, because they can not afford to buy their own.I started writing a mathematics manuscript for secondary school with Tonny but it is not yet complete.I think given time and a good program for the project, it will benefit many students in uganda. Thanks

I am not sure why you guys limit your sights to Uganda. LOOK HIGHER! I don't think there is a developing country in the world that can not appreciate this thread, perhaps contribute and certainly benefit.

The beauty of this proposal seems to me to be the potential for exchange between countries. Tonny writes an A level text book for Biology. The same text, translated perhaps into another language, can be sent very cheaply across the world and published in a number of other countries. At the same time, someone in those countries may write an A level text book for Chemistry or Sociology and distribute the script to others including the Book Project in Uganda.

That way a library of text books could emerge with little duplication of materials, though of course plenty of paper duplication when it comes to printing copies.

And that is a problem. When, a while back, I emailed Eric Wanjamah a 190 pages training manual for Probation Officers written by a former colleague of mine, it didn't solve the problem because the cost of printing off 190 pages in Kenya was prohibitively expensive for one individual to bear. It was cheaper in real terms for me to print off a copy and send it to him.

But with a network of book projects the mutual costs would come down.

I'm still a bit concerned about how the project will be funded. Will you rely on donations from well-wishers, grants from educationalists or education providers, or do you really need some sustainable income streams from some other source? A non-profit maybe, but with some potential for income generation too?

David your points about textbooks are very good. Already there are many serious efforts along these lines. Global Text is one similar to what you envision. Open Educational Resources OER and the OER Commons is another fairly robust system. There are really hundreds of other sites with very useful resources.

So there are many opportunities for publishing, and some of those opportunities are in making what's available accessible.

So my thoughts turn to money like David's do, and like David I think that income generation is very important. But what the right plan is, is hard to say. I've got some half-baked ideas, but I think what's needed is some brainstorming to generate some ideas on how to make money in educational publishing in Uganda. There are some good models out there and lots of possibilities.

The problem of the costs is simply too important to ignore. But I think that sometimes when, even as an experiment, one turns attention on profit and income, thinking about money becomes less depressing.

Hullo members of ned.com, am so grateful to be part of this section. My name is Wangi Godfrey, a final year agricultural engineering student in makerere university-kampala uganda. Am a member of the project " BOOK PROJECT FOR POOR STUDENTS IN UGANDA" and am very much interested in providing services to the project. I fill if the objectives of this project are accomplished, atleast there will be a change in the education of Uganda. So we request you members to keep commenting on our project and all steps we take because we are planning to start activities soon. Thanx

Hello all members. My name is Matovu david. I was born in Masaka district in Uganda. As a child i liked reading books especially the ones that had cartoon pictures, unfortunately they were scarce at home and school. Am a graduate in Economics and i run a small business for my brother.Am among the founders of book project for poor students in uganda. After a long period of suffering to get reading materials, we developed an idea of making them accessible. It is quite a challenging project but i have hope that we shall get it done. I thank other members who are working tirelessly to see it that the project works. I think it will work well, am a potential marketing manager, so i can do that for the project. Lets continue discussing in order to have a strong foundation. Thanks alot.

welcome David! where have you been all along?

helo members,bithum marie is my name .astudent in my final year at the faculty of agric.the book project seems to be agood and encouraging project. keep it up.

Welcome bithum, thanks for joining the group.