The wife of the deputy governor of Enugu State, Mrs. Adaeze Ifeyinwa Ossai, has introduced a reading club called Merry Readers Club to boost reading culture among secondary school students in the State.
Known for her strong advocacy for literacy, Mrs. Ossai also set up reading corners and distributed books to as many young readers as possible. The club, focused on community building, aims to ensure that children in rural communities have access to the same learning resources as their peers in other regions. The objective of the club is to cultivate readers in every home—individuals who will continuously seek knowledge and contribute immense value to their communities and peers.
The event, which took place on Monday, October 14, 2024, was attended by prefects and class leaders from Community Secondary School Ezimo Uno; Community High School Ezimo Agu, and Community Secondary School Imilike Uno, as well as some of their teachers, and it featured talks from resource persons on leadership, bullying, dyslexia, and other topics.
The prefects, who volunteered as the coordinators of the club, participated in team-building games and shared potential challenges and solutions to ensure students at their respective schools join the club and use the provided reading materials as intended.
Mrs. Ossai donated bookshelves stocked with a diverse range of books to each school, including Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Goosebumps, history books, African literature, Enid Blyton stories, ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Letters to Ijeawele, Purple Hibiscus, textbooks on core subjects such as Math, English, Social Studies, calculators, dictionaries, stationery, Scrabble games, and many more.
To further encourage learning, she also provided word spelling boards to help students learn new words and familiarise themselves with their meanings. She urged them to use dictionaries to look up definitions and practice forming sentences with the words.
Mrs. Ossai appealed to the teachers to support the initiative, offering a phone number and email address where they could report any issues or request new books and sequels. She emphasised that the goal was to make the reading journey successful and impactful for every child involved.
She concluded by thanking the teachers and students for their time and dedication, encouraging them not to hesitate in reaching out to her. Mrs. Ossai promised to visit frequently, to read with the students, provide new books, and assist in any way possible.
