Africa Women Rising to promote literacy through 'Book Drive' project

The Africa Women Rising (AWR), a women development centered organisation, last Thursday held a forum to deliberate on some key projects that the association is undertaking.

The forum, which was moderated by Dr Agyapoma Kufour and Awo, senior fellows of the association, at the UDS Guest House in Accra, was used to discuss the extensively the association’s new project dubbed, “Book Drive.”

The Book Drive initiative is aimed at providing learning materials, particularly reading materials to pupils in less developed communities in the country.

The event brought together a number of members of the association under one roof.

Africa Women Rising, which was formally known as Crown Women Rising (CWR) was founded by Rev. Mrs Nana Sekyere, to promote women-led businesses, mentor young women entrepreneurs and startups, as well as to serve as a platform where women entrepreneurs could network to promote their businesses locally and internationally.

In her brief remarks, Mrs. Sekyere said “This book drive is so important to us because we believe it’s a life changing for underprivileged children.”

For her, there cannot be any meaningful development if the needs of children, particularly those in rural communities are not met.

“When mothers thrive in their businesses and make an impact in our society, our children need to thrive alongside with us else we fail as women and as parents,” she said.

In addition, she noted, “We need to help our children at home, in our communities and in academics in order to expose them to the world of business.”

Mrs. Sekyere explained that reading is key “If we are to guide our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to be successful in this world role.”

She said when children are encouraged and helped, it will enable them to unlock their potential, pointing out that elsewhere, children are making significant differences in their communities due to the fact that they have been given the needed exposure and opportunities through education. 

“I’ve seen in different parts of the world where an 8-year-old is in a business of making cupcakes, a 10-year in a business of making homemade spices, a 12-year-old in a business of birthday cakes, children making streams of income and I can’t see why our children cannot do that,” she remarked.

For Mrs. Sekyere, children can do whatever they want to achieve in life if they are exposed to the world of life through reading and proper education.

“It all begins with reading. Technology is ruling the world today and for kids to be able to pick up skills in this area the ability to read is critical,” she noted. 

She said children are the future leaders of the country and therefore cannot be neglected, saying “They need to be encouraged to read and thrive in education. Unfortunately for some of these children, they don’t even have story books to begin with.”

She urged the members of the association to help in reaching out to the underprivileged children with reading materials, pointing out that “it takes a village to raise a child.”