Literacy Grant Spotlight: The Student Success Center

Each year, Phi Kappa Phi awards Literacy Grants of up to $2,500 to active members and chapters. The grants help fund projects ranging from traditional reading initiatives to those fostering learning in cultural, digital, financial, health, historical literacy and beyond. For 2019 grant recipient Liberatus Rwebugisa, that financial support helped his ongoing efforts to improve literacy through The Student Success Center in Tanzania.

For Rwebugisa, a co-founder of Advocacy Tanzania, the purpose of the SSC project is to build and sustain strong, fundamental academic skills by providing books, tutoring and mentoring to students in a rural area of the African country. “Bukoki village and other five neighboring villages have a total of eleven public schools, none of which have a library/tutoring center,” he shared. While poor test performance and high dropout rates were often improved with private tutoring, many rural families found this to be an unaffordable option.

With the support of Phi Kappa Phi and Tanzanian volunteers, the grant money was directed toward renovating a room to be used as a library, as well as purchasing books and building shelves. Local masons and carpenters volunteered their time for the renovation, and students and adults alike helped bring the library to life.

“This grant is an important milestone towards the dream of Advocacy Tanzania of establishing a Center for Community Building with a central library and other communitywide educational services including tutoring and mentoring services for both children and adults,” shared Rwebugisa.

Visit www.phikappaphi.org/literacy to learn more about all of the 2019 Literacy Grant recipients or to start your grant application. Deadline for applications is April 1, 2020.

Photos provided by Liberatus Rwebugisa – A before and after comparison of the renovation work in a Tanzanian library project funded by a Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant.