The League of Young Female Leaders and the African Youth Writers Organization have organized a reading clinic in honour of Ghana’s founding father Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

The event which took place in Tamale on Founder’s Day brought together children from the League Litclub and children at the AYWO Funky Read/Write clinic.

The children were given a moment of inspiration to make them appreciate literacy as an empowering tool as they took turns in exercising their reading prowess to the admiration of facilitators.

The highlight of the event was the breakout session where participants were divided into ten groups where each was assigned a facilitator and a peer mentor.

Each group with guidance from the facilitator and the peer mentor had the responsibility to come out with a poem on Kwame Nkrumah that represented the entire group.

The move was to test individual creativity and intuition and also to encourage team work among participants.

Each was allowed to select the best poem among the individual poems to represent the entire group or merge the different individual poems to compose a unique poem for the group.

“We were thrilled with the responses we received from these children; they simply mesmerized us and we felt Nkrumah in our presence. Literacy standards are falling in the wake of technological advancement making children less conscious about reading”, Executive Director of the League of Young Female Leaders, Ms. Hikmat Baba Dua said.

She added that “we all have a collective responsibility to equip children with the treasures in the pages of books”.

The children also participated in a charade activity and had lots of fun in taking pictures with their colleagues, peer mentors and facilitators.

Below is a poem written by a participant.

WONDERFUL NKRUMAH

Wonderful Nkrumah

Oh wonderful Nkrumah

Who can be like you

You were a man of peace

A man of justice

You were a hero

When my beloved nation Ghana was in pieces

You brought peace

When our right was being abused

You fought for freedom

How can we ever thank you

Man of peace, man of justice and a man of freedom

My right hand will always be placed on my chest

Just for you, NKRUMAH.