Cherish, an 11-year-old hearing-impaired in
primary 4 of Therapeutic Inclusive Nursery/Primary School, was so excited when
she heard her school was going to get a total of 135 storybooks from Keeping
It Real Foundation. Although her school had a mini library, the library didn’t
have storybooks and was filled with old and outdated storybooks. Cherish and
her classmates would have loved to read storybooks but her parent could not
afford to buy them.
When the Keeping It Real Foundation (KIR)
Ambassador and Volunteer Divine Favour visited the school on February 10th
2021 to set up a reading corner, Cherish and her friends eagerly looked forward
to having access to the books. During the event, the KIR Foundation Ambassador
told Cherish and her classmates that 5 pupils who actively participate in the
reading session would be given storybooks. Cherish was determined to be one of
them. Thus, when Divine Favour, an Alumni
of the school and the KIR Foundation Ambassador asked for the pupils to
volunteer to read, Cherish although hearing impaired, confidently stepped forward.
However, she had difficulty in reading the story `The King’s New Cloth’. When
Cherish could not read the story, eight-year-old Ebenezar, a primary three
student read the story fluently and was rewarded with the book ‘The King’s New Cloth
and other Stories’. Thereafter, 9-year-old Rejoice, one of Cherish's
classmate was given her first storybook `Elaine and The Flying Frog’ for
answering the questions that were asked by the KIR Foundation Ambassador
correctly.
Though Cherish was not rewarded with any story
book for her attempt at reading, she was given the privilege of giving the Vote of Thanks on behalf of her school for the 155 books (135 storybooks and 20
textbooks) donated to the school library. Also, the Head Teacher of the school
Mrs Gift Nwaluka thanked KIR Foundation for improving the quality of education for
301 students in the school.
KIR Foundation through the 10th
Anniversary Book Drive Campaign is consciously stimulating a culture of reading
among primary school pupils because an early reading culture fosters lifelong learning and enables children to grow into creative adults. Studies indicate
that about 40% of Nigerian adults have never completed reading a fictional book
after formal education. Further research also revealed that 30 million Nigerian
Secondary School leavers have poor reading skills, while an average Nigerian
reads less than one book per year. These findings are quite alarming because we
are leaving in a knowledge-based economy where the development and prosperity of
any nation is based on the quality of education in the country.
KIR
Foundation recognizes that reading is a basic tool for personal and National
Development. However, there is a dearth of library and reading corners in our
public schools. That is why since 2011 KIR Foundation has been promoting a
culture of reading by donating books to our underserved beneficiaries like
Cherish, Rejoice and Ebenezer who want to read but do not have access to
books.
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