Books of Hope our students made for students in Uganda, May 2009.

From Albemarle Family Magazine by Havilah Giannetta (Havilah is a communications intern with Albemarle County Public Schools.)

Students at Agnor-Hurt have reached across the world to connect with students in Uganda through the Books of Hope (BOH) program, and in the process have become authors, researchers, illustrators, and teachers.

Agnor-Hurt is one of 24 U.S. schools which sponsor and create educational books for the Lalogi Primary School, a school with 7 teachers who serve 317 students, mamy whose lives have been disrupted by poverty, disease, or the attacks and abductions of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a terrorist rebel group hiding in the dense terrain of the northern Congo.

"We are looking at this as a partnership and an exchange ...as a chance to learn about life in Uganda from the Ugandan children who are the experts in their culture, and also to share our own experiences," said Bev Ingram, an English of Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) instructor who helps run the program at Agnor-Hurt.

At the end of March, Agnor-Hurt studnets sent an introductory book to Lalogi entitled A Day in the Life of Agnor-Hurt, filled with pictures of students in class activities, most of them photographed by fifth-grade student Kiran Ponce-Lope.  The book included questions about a normal day in the ife and culture of Lalogi students as well as messages of hope for the students there.

In June, Agnor-Hurt sent 100 pounds of math, science, geography, language, writing, art, and music books to Lalogi, contributing to the 2,500 books Lalogi will receive this year when all its sister schools have sent their books.

"When we're making this book, I feel like I'm doing something really big for Uganda," fourth-grader Dhanya Babu said, "that's really how I feel."  And they are.