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Stakeholders mark 2011 IDAY ‘Read So They
May Read’
in Abuja
Newsdiaryonline
Wed June 22,2011
Participants at this
year’s International Day of the African Child …and its Youth
(IDAY) Nigeria Chapter have resolved to make book readings a
culture among children and youths, in a bid to arrest the
dwindling culture and in a bid to actualize goal number 2 of the
Millennium Development Goals MDGs in the year 2015.
Convened on the theme
‘Read So They May Read’, this year’s commitment to the reading
culture was led by two government officials, Mrs. A. E. Achema
representing the National Planning Commission and Mr. N. Osaghae
from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in a
special reading session from the books of rhymes and supported
by over 40 others from different sectors of the society.
In a keynote address
delivered by Dr. Lanre Adebayo, Executive Director of Initiative
for Civic Education (ICE), he urged all stakeholders,
particularly civil society organizations and non-state actors to
take this year’s theme as a very important challenge as the
issue involved borders on our national development. Further he
said the emphasis and focus of this year’s event are two, which
include the education of the African child as a subject of
concern and the need to develop and sustain a reading culture
among the children, youths and the family, as a means to
reinventing the dying culture of reading in the society. He
therefore called on the government and civil society to partner
and sustain a collaborative agenda that will help in tackling
the phenomenon.
Some of the participants
supported the above submissions and resolutions with goodwill
messages. They include Ms. De Evans of the Save the Children
Nigeria (UK), Dr. Raphael Ogar Oko of Teachers Without Borders
and Dr. Joseph Kariboro of Initiative for the development of
Education in the Niger Delta. Others include Hajia Zainab Bagudu
Aliyu of Sabil Charitable International Organization (SCIO)
Ahmed Badanga of Fire Prevention Environment NGO and David
Ochigbo of Youth Action Organization of
Nigeria
(YAON) .
Several books, writing
materials and cash donations were made at the venue. An NGO not
represented at the event had pledged to assist IDAY with about
one million books and materials of different titles to be
sourced Book for Africa Foundation based in the United States of
America (USA) while Teachers Without Borders donated 1000 books
and a special novel on peace, specifically to encourage reading
culture and the content of peace in our society. Sabil
Charitable International Organization who is also running the
Zero Illiteracy Project (ZIP) with over 200 indigent pupils in
Bindawa local government area of Katsina state,
Nigeria
also donated books and writing materials to support the theme,
Barr. Oluchi Agbanyim of Center for Democracy and Development
and Mr. Chido Onumah also donated materials.
In a closing remark, the
Africa Regional Coordinator of the World Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (WANGO) and national Coordinator
of IDAY in Nigeria,
Mr. Mohammed Bougei Attah thanked the participants with a
promise to sustain 2011 IDAY ‘Read So They May Read’ campaign
theme as well as give back report on its activities annually
especially as it concerns the distributions of the materials
donated and with a view to encouraging more Nigerians not only
to read for prosperity but also to donate for the cause of
education in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
IDAY is a network of
African and European organizations, each of which is committed
to educational projects in Africa.
These organizations are united to make the voice of African
civil society heard. The objective is creating a lot of
awareness to compel the authorities to ensure that all children
of school age are able to complete a full course of primary
education by the year 2015. IDAY is hosted in Nigeria by WANGO.
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