By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An initiative of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc called Read Africa, which was launched by UBA Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the pan African lender, was taken to Ghana on Tuesday, July 4, 2017.
The Read Africa was created in 2011 to educate and empower African youths and has been changing the lives of African students across the continent for six years.
The project is aimed at encouraging children to improve their vocabulary and communication skills through reading.
Through its Read Africa initiative, the UBA Foundation is helping rekindle the dwindling reading culture amongst African youths as they pursue their education.
More than 100,000 books and educational materials have been donated to various schools across Africa as UBA Foundation continues to traverse the continent, contributing positively to the development of African youths.
Yesterday at the Accra High School in Ghana, the school assembly hall was packed with over 500 energetic and enthusiastic high school students who were already in reading mode as they prepared for their exams next week.
They were eager to talk about their own ambitions and to read passages from The Fishermen.
Acting CEO of the UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, told the children that the Foundation was eager to give back to society and to contribute to creating dynamic educational platforms for future generations on the continent.
She encouraged the students to read voraciously saying: ‘the pursuit of knowledge should be a lifelong activity that starts at a very young age. You should read all types of books so that you can explore and shape your own narrative.’
CEO of UBA Ghana, Abiola Bawuah, who was also at the school yesterday, advised the students to pay a lot of attention to studying.
‘Don’t spend all your time glued to your mobile phones. Spare some moments for reading also,’ Bawuah urged the students, who embraced the initiative.
The Assistant head master of Accra High School, Mr Michael Addo, thanked the UBA Foundation for coming to their aid.