We were delighted that we could be joined by volunteers from all of our Ghana-based corporate donors to which helped us turn ‘ World Book Day’ into ‘Share a Story Week!’ We were very fortunate to have the support of Copleston School in 2020 with an astonishing donation of over 25,000 books, this was the first opportunity we have had to start distributing the books and help set up libraries in each of the schools.
Community 7 Primary School
Thre volunteers from Hapag-Lloyd; Ernestina Ayimad, Frank Akyea and Edith Kodo-Essuman joined us to deliver the first reading to kick-start this year’s celebration of World Book Day. Ernestina read ‘The Portrait Problem’ by Roderick Hunt to the class then some of the children enthusiastically role-played some of the characters from the children. After discussing the story and answering questions the volunteers gave books out to all the children
Community 8 Primary School
The second reading for the day was from Albert Kabenlah and Eugenia Laryea from the OMA Group. They read “The Village Show” by Mike Poulton, it was a lot of fun as the volunteers ensured they took their time to read and explain words that the children were not too familiar with. During a very interactive session, Albert and Eugenia also talked to the children and answered all their questions about the jobs they do at OMA Group. The visit ended with the volunteers giving out books to the children.
Twedaase Primary School
Noah Agbedor from Fendercare Marine volunteered with us and a group of children were chosen for the story sharing time under some trees on the school’s compound. The children enjoyed the cool, fresh air as they listened to Noah read from “The New Classroom”by Roderick Hunt. After listening to the story, the children constructed a new classroom with cardboard with the contractors amongst them leading the way. Noah used the opportunity to advise the children to keep listening to their teachers, to avoid bad company and study hard to be able to make a career for themselves. Each child took home a book to read and share.
Republic Road Primary School
We welcomed Yaw Gyau and Aaron Mensah Quaye from Prime Insurance to help us at Republic Road. The children were excited to hear Yaw read and were equally eager to take us out in the open to show us what they had learnt from the reading. Yaw told the children all about insurance and his daily tasks as part of the Prime Insurance team. This ended day two with all the children taking away books shared by Yaw and Aaron.
Baatsona School
Baaba Bondzi from Yinson Production West Africa Ltd volunteered at Baatsona school and read “Handa’s Surprise” by Eileen Brown to the children. The children enjoyed listening to Baaba and after the reading brought out the fruits they had to act out the story. Some of the children also shaped out the faces of the animals in the story with cardboard to join the play. One of children narrated the story for the rest to act it out. It was a morning of great fun for the children.
Future Leaders School, Accra
This was a great opportunity for students in JHS 1 to work together to pick a story they really enjoyed reading and to create a play together. The students chose a book (“Asana The Kayayo (head porter)” byAlexander Baafi Okyere) with the moral of always working hard, never giving up and to remember where you come from and these are all great lessons for students from a disadvantaged background to learn and be encouraged from. We were really grateful to Carolyne Kissi Asiamah from Yinson Production West Africa Ltd for joining us, interacting with the students and for distributing the reading books too.
“From my observation, this three day book day celebration brought so much excitement to the schools, our partner donors, the Akwaaba Volunteers and Futurestars Teams. It was obvious the schools had not done this in a very long time, if ever – the teachers and pupils really prepared for their turn and looked forward to the reading, especially after a long break at home due to COVID-19. Feedback from our volunteers was that it was a wonderful opportunity to give back and read with the children.
Personally, I have sat in classrooms just like these in my primary school days and I never experienced a day like that – where donors will read to children, give them books to take home, stress on the importance of reading, share their work experiences all to celebrate World Book Day. I believe it’s an experience that all the children will remember for a long time.”
Emmanuel Okyne-Tetteh, Futurestars Project Manager Ghana.
