Read 4 Change—Discovering The Joy And Value Of Reading

“In every community there is work to be done. In every nation there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it.”- Marianne Williamson.

It is precisely with this power that the Read 4 Change program started.

Read for Change is an organization that seeks to reduce illiteracy rate in Ghana especially among students in basic schools and in deprived areas. Its motto is “Promoting Reading Excellence.”

Behind every great movement, there is a leader with an even greater vision and for Read 4 Change, that person is Marian Abena Oteng, a level 400 student studying Public Relations at the Ghana Institute of Journalism(GIJ). She is a fun, easy going,a very spiritual and purpose driven individual whose ambition in life is to empower underprivileged children by giving them the skills they need for the future and equip them for a brighter future in further education.

Touching on what influenced her to start this cause she said,’’ so when I was in basic school, that is, Ridge Church School, the library periods were my best. It was almost as if I lived in another world when I read and I wanted to share this experience with kids in deprived areas. So I gathered a few people and that is why we are here now.”

The program started in 2013 with less than ten members but now it has over fifty volunteers in different schools including GIJ, University of Ghana and Wisconsin International University College and generously supported by Lutheran Media Ministries.

To address the gaps in learning and create a culture of reading, Read 4 Change designed a reading clinic aimed at supporting children in reading assessment and community engagementand have undertaken three projects so far. The first reading clinic was at La Nkwatanangin Madina,the second reading clinic was at Kyekyewere Primary School and Asuom Primary and Junior High School in Adeaso and the third was at Lekporgunor situated in Old Ningo.

With her impression regarding their first reading clinic,Marian had this to say, “My joy could not be expressed in words as I saw the excitement in the children.They did not want us to leave.”However, Read 4 Change had challenges with getting books for the children.They were barely enough but were able to help them start a library.

Through support from Lutheran Media Ministries, Read 4 Change has seen some improvements over the years. In their last reading clinic, they had enough materials for learning where the children were lent books and spent time with their reading partners and attended reading camps. The students were engaging and promising though there were some that were a bit of a problem.

Read 4 Change did not only inculcate reading habits in the children but engaged the community as well by addressing issues on sanitation and teenage pregnancy as it was on the rise in the community. A clean-up exercise was organized at the community clinic and an hour was spent each day, teaching the children issues pertaining teenage pregnancy where a drama was used to educate them.

Indeed, many of our nation’s children lack the motivation to read, and children who do not have access to books and do not read regularly are among the most vulnerable Ghanaians. Read 4 Change makes a difference by confronting literacy issues. Volunteers spend countless hours staging reading motivation activities and promoting the importance of literacy in their communities. They inspire children to be lifelong readers as well as follow their dreams and achieve their potential.

Marian was born on 10^th March 1992. She had her basic education at Ridge Church School and continued at Achimota Senior High where she studied General Arts. She is the second of four children and hails from Ejisu Dome-Abra in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

When Marian is not volunteering, she spends her time in the world of arts. She is the Chief Executive officer (C.E.O) of Nhyira Collections, an enterprise that specializes in beadedaccessories.

Volunteering takes a lot of time, Marian said, but she was quick to add that she is most proud of the number of lives Read 4 Change has impacted with their reading clinic.

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