“The girls were motivated to chase their dreams and use their stories to inspire others in their communities”

In March, LitClubs and some community members in Cameroon came together to celebrate World Read Aloud Day, organised by World Vision for Education and Development.

The event was characterised by fun learning activities, aimed at encouraging girls to build passion around reading and striving to be educated. The event saw the participation of about 50 participants coordinated by the LitClub mentors.

World Read Aloud Day is an initiative of LitWorld and Global GLOW.  It is focused on taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. 

World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

Every year LitWorld celebrates the day with members of the LitClub in the HerStory Initiative all over the world. Every LitClub creates a positive environment that inspires dynamic improvement in reading and writing skills. 

She shared her life story of how at a certain age in life she felt like life was worthless. 

Through reading books and encouragement from her family, despite all the negativity of how useless the community thought she was, she was able to realise there are people in the world who also have the same condition.

She worked towards making her dream of becoming a journalist a reality and today she finds life more beautiful. She is a great inspiration to many. 

She encouraged the girls to read because, through it, they would be able to explore the world in one spot. 

She also motivated the girls to empower themselves through reading and to set up goals for themselves and work with mentors to achieve their set goals.

The girls were challenged by these stories and motivated to go out to chase their dreams and use their stories to inspire others in their communities.

LitWorld’s LitClubs offer children a safe, structured setting to read, write and raise their voices – telling and sharing stories. This enables the children to learn the skills of reading and writing in a meaningful way, based on LitWorld’s seven strengths of belonging, curiosity, kindness, friendship, confidence, courage and hope.

This event saw the girls engaged in different activities – reading, poems and dramas, community-building exercises. This gave room for the LitClub members to display their talents and listen to the experiences of diverse female motivational speakers, with the likes of Budji Kefen and Bih Hilda. 

Budji Kefen – a teacher, journalist, writer and a motivational speaker – set the pace by sharing her story with the girls on how her love for reading changed her life completely.  

She was able to complete her first novel, Boundless, by the time she completed secondary school because of her love for reading, writing and stories sharing at an early age. 

She went further to urge the girls to put efforts in reading – because it is through reading that information can be accessed easily and it is a very important way of making their thoughts known. Above all, reading is a means of survival.

Hilda Bih is a dynamic, physically-challenged journalist; who made her dreams of becoming a journalist a reality despite her disability.