SWARTHMORE, Pa.--In the vast majority of schools in Uganda, students learn from composition notebooks. Their schools have just one or two copies of each textbook needed for dozens of students and it gets copied, by hand, onto those notebooks. If a student wants to learn about anything beyond what is in their class and textbook, there is no outlet for them. Without access to computers or additional books, they reach a wall whenever their interests are piqued in a new area. The Literate Earth Project (LEP) aims to eliminate that barrier.

"I first saw the need for libraries on a trip to Uganda during college," says founder and CEO Jeff Fonda. "The school where I was working had a few books under lock and key. When I convinced the headmaster to allow me to have a free period in which students could use the books, I saw excitement as the pictures of different animals, cities, people, events, even trees, which they had never seen before, began expanding their minds immediately."

In 2013, Fonda returned to that community and opened their first library. In March, they returned from opening their ninth. The Literate Earth Project partners directly with primary schools in Uganda. Each school provides the space and a hires a full-time librarian. Once that is in place, the organization brings in 3,000 general leisure books, shelves and a sampling of new Ugandan syllabus books. After the library has fulfilled certain metrics, such as instituting a borrowing program with no books missing and giving each class free time in the library, the school becomes eligible for a $4,500 shipment of additional Ugandan syllabus books, altering the school from top to bottom as the composition notebooks are replaced with textbooks that have graphs, pictures and formalized text. The Literate Earth Project also trains the full-time librarian and makes quarterly visits to provide additional guidance and ensure the school is using the library effectively. Much of this is now done by their two full-time Ugandan staff members.

"The training and relationship we build with the librarian is so important," says Danielle Sweetman, the director of literacy programming. "They are the conduit to ensuring the school uses this new resource by engaging teachers and students when they first enter the library." Sweetman, who created the extensive training, is now working to cater USAID's literacy evaluation program to what The Literate Earth Project needs. "While we have anecdotal evidence that our libraries are having an impact, both from what we've seen and been told by teachers, by 2017 we will be able to prove it with hard data."

It's not just LEP staff who see the improvements. The Ugandan government has become a key supporter within the country. At a 2015 library opening, Ugandan Vice President Edwards Ssekandi called their work "a landmark moment in our education system." With those nine libraries opened, The Literate Earth Project says they have benefited 4,659 students with 28,000 books valued at $308,000. Currently focused in Uganda, they have plans to expand to neighboring countries in the next few years.

Fonda came up with the concept of The Literate Earth Project after volunteering in Uganda in 2009 with Soccer Without Borders.