Turning dreams into reality - How one Ghanaian youth turned his love of books into a nation-wide educational initiative

Wisdom Kafui Honu has always had a passion for reading. Ever since he was a child, he loved books and would sometimes stay up late into the night just to finish reading a suspenseful storybook.

As a young child, Honu was fortunate to have access to a library with a wide selection of educational and leisure reading materials to read at his home in Tumu in the Upper West Region. But due to his father’s job as an educationist, his family relocated often and at age nine, he found himself in Tafi Agome, a rural community in the Volta Region, with limited access to learning materials and facilities that he used to enjoy in Tumu.

“It only had one school, no library, no electricity then and a small first aid centre,” Honu explains, adding that he most especially missed having a library to frequently visit, and was unsure what to do.

Apart from his own struggle as he adjusted to the new community, Honu observed the impact that the absence of a library had on his peers. He said many of his classmates were doing poorly in school, particularly in English classes, and he noticed that many could not read or write well.

“The school didn’t have access to storybooks that we could borrow,” says Honu, who attributes the absence of books in the community to the lower levels of literacy among the children there. At just nine years old, Honu decided to take action.

Honu was fortunate to have his own small book collection that his parents had helped him  build over the years when the family was living in Tumu. He decided to start a reading club with his friends to share with them the stories that he was so passionate about, and that helped him to excel in reading and writing.

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