A FEAST WITH 1000 KIDS -A WAR ON ILLITERACY (NVDAY15)_HOTEP ABEKU ADAMS

 Illiteracy has become a major setback for Ghana as a Nation. For the past years, records shows that the number of illiterate in Ghana supersedes the number of literate. Current and previous government have tried their best to curb the solutions by building more schools in the country. But these effort seems futile and has left the nation in an impoverished state where we have so many children in our society who have dropped out of school and some not willing to go to school.

These glitches have been as a result of poor parental care and also in some cases incongruous mentors in the society for these children to look up to. In Ghana most of our society have children roaming without some proper to do with their lives. It is as a result of these social vices, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction have become rampant in our society.

From left to right ( Kwabena Annan & Hotep Abeku Adams

As part of the September 21 founders day celebration which is a national public holiday observed in Ghana to mark the birthday of Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the founding fathers of Ghana, volunteers have also set aside that day to make an impact in our society hence a National Volunteer Day.

National Volunteer Day (NVDay) is a day slated for the September 21 of every year which is also Founder's Day by The GhanaThink Foundation, geared towards encouraging Ghanaians to take up the attitude of Volunteerism. The NVDay initiative has become part of the GhanaThink Foundation's Ghana Volunteer Program (GVP) which is also to promote volunteerism and volunteer activities in Ghana while getting more volunteers for this. The idea of volunteering to do something worthy in the society on these day is what triggered a young Man, Hotep Abeku Adams and his associates to come up with an idea of sending the kids in our society back to school.

Some Volunteers carrying the food for the feast

Foods Served to the Children

Hotep Abeku Adams is a young Ghanaian who sees the need of eradicating illiteracy from our society. He therefore came up with an idea of feasting with 1000 kids on these day. The whole idea seems outrageous but I believe when your dream doesn’t scares you then it is not worth it. For this reason he themed the feast A WAR ON ILLITERACY.

Abeku Adams upon meeting some volunteer groups before the day, he explained that the whole idea of A WAR ON ILLITERACY was taken from the Cuba Revolution which took in place in the year 1959. Fidel Castro a Revolutionist believed that the best way Cuba could stand was only if everyone could read and write. And within a year the dreams of Castro became a reality.

Hotep added “we live in a society that if we don’t help ourselves, there is no one to help us” hence all his life time, he has never dreamt of becoming a rich man but rather an epitome of change in the society. Also, he went to the University just to ensure the progress and continuity of the society .Therefore when Ghanaians talk about change, it shouldn’t be about political change but rather Societal change.

A volunteer speaking with some kids

Some Volunteers and the kids

Today’s volunteer day saw several volunteering and charity groups coming together at Amanful; a fishing community in Cape Coast to speak and mentor the kids in the society. Campus Volunteer, Project Hope Ghana, Basic Education Student Association from the University of Cape Coast as well as Dignity Africa and Cape Coast Youth Coalition for Development were also on Board to support the feast with 1000 kids.

Several individuals and family contributed towards the making the of an idea a reality. Volunteers spoke to the kids about the need to go back to the classroom and also touched on certain societal issues like Teenage Pregnancy, Drug Abuse, and Occultism which are major impediments in our societies.

various Volunteers and the kids of Amanful

Hotep Abeku Adams stated after the feast that “it is the first of its kind and it has come to stay, A feast with 1000 kids will be the first phase of A WAR ON ILLITERACY and it will become a Nationwide program” He further admonished the students from the University Of Cape Coast who offered helping hand that, “they must be a conscript of change in the Cape Coast. They must live Cape Coast after their four years stay with a legacy “.

Mr Woyome, one of the invited guest to the feast also added that “it is about time students from the university set foot out there to help the young ones live good a life.” He further stated “60% of Ghanaians are Christians, but we will not have religious identity when it comes to making a change in the society”

We must all stand and support this wonderful initiative of kicking illiteracy in our society