The High Commission of Ghana Literacy Drive

FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2016 THE VOICE | 19

FEATURE Literacy Drive Charity Ball

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MEDIA PARTNER

Under the distinguished patronage of

The High Commission of Ghana

Saturday 6 February 2016 Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 9PY ORGANISERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

PwC | National Diversity Award | Reach Society | Anthony Nolan | GUBA | Project Volunteer | BUFF Award | Premae Skincare

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20 | THE VOICE FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2016

FEATURE

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LITERACY DRIVE HELPS GHANA’S STAR TO RISE Exclusive interview with His Excellency Mr Victor Smith

By Poppy Brady

“

L

ITERACY IS a bridge from misery to hope – a tool for daily life in modern society” – these wise words from Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian-born born former United Nations Secretary General will strike a chord with organisers of the first Literacy Drive Charity Ball to boost funds for education in Ghana.

Under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency Mr Victor Emmanuel Smith, the High Commissioner of Ghana, the black-tie event is to be held at London’s luxurious Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel in Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, on Saturday, February 6 With the support of the charity Promoting Global Learning (PGL), the not-for-profit company Universal Learning Solutions (ULS), and The Voice, the evening will offer guests a unique night of entertainment while helping to ensure that thousands of children across Ghana learn to read and write.

charity’s motto is giving a child “a hand up to a better life, not a hand-out.”

Henry Yentumi. Together they launched a campaign to provide textbooks to support schools in developing countries.

Shocking statistics reveal that out of Africa’s 129 million school-age children only half have had the opportu- n i t y to attend school – and more than 90 per cent of those who do have never owned a book of their own. Their school walls are bare, but they are still highly motivated to learn.

Within weeks they had filled an empty garage with books and stationery – and they are still collecting for anything that can be used in a school. That includes early learning toys, puzzles, games, dolls, sports and art equipment and even children’s shoes.

In classrooms of 60 pupils only 78 per cent of teachers have blackboards and less than 50 per cent have chalk.

In Upper West Akim in

Literacy may still be one of its greatest challenges, but Ghana’s star continues to rise. It is now described as a middle income country and has been named among the world’s top tourism destinations for 2016.

Despite Ghana spending proportionately more on education than the UK and almost 90 per cent of its children now in school, poverty is still an enormous stumbling block for literacy.

And just over two weeks ago, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama was announced by United National Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as one of the co-chairs leading the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It means President Mahama, along with co-chair Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, will lead a team of globally-powerful advocates who are supporting the SecretaryGeneral to work together to end poverty, build peace and secure a healthy planet for present and future generations.

Mr Smith told The Voice: “Ghana’s literacy rates currently stand at 80 per cent, which is good, but we have 20 per cent of our children who still need to be helped. Much has been done to increase literacy through informal education but there are still too many youngsters not receiving a basic education.

“This is a human right – they need literacy to acquire skills for jobs and for life if they are to reach their full potential. Some of the greatest challenges are in rural Ghana, but we are hoping to set up centres of excellence in these areas where the best practices in teaching will be used to improve literacy rates.”

Talking about the first Literacy Drive Charity Ball, Mr Smith, who has been Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK for the past two years, said: “We’re hoping that this event will be annual and I am confident our first ball will be a great success.

“We have more than 350 guests including diplomats, business leaders, media, renowned sports personalities, charitable organisations and an array of stars from stage and screen.

“Apart from enjoying a three-course dinner and cultural performances, it will offer an excellent opportunity to network while learning about some of the challenges facing Ghana today. We hope to have video films to illustrate the struggles faced by schoolchildren and their teachers.”

Mr Smith is full of praise for the work of PGL where the

Mr Smith stressed that one of Ghana’s main routes to transform literacy rates is the Jolly Futures programme – a leading educational publisher which has partnered with Universal Learning Solutions. Its programme has already transformed the lives of children in Nigeria where more than 24,000 government teachers have been trained and a million children reached. The aim is now to achieve similar results in Ghana.

Eastern Ghana, the schools’ pass rates are 27 per cent in maths, 22 per cent in English, but 11 schools have a zero per cent pass rate.

This is one of the reasons that PGL launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £60,000 for three mobile library vans for schools in Ghana. Some children frequently have to walk four miles to school and four miles back in their quest for education.

The charity was launched in 2014 after Surrey-based teacher Sue Gerrish had a chance meeting with Ghanaian

Mr Smith said: “This has been a real honour for Ghana to play a leading role in this ambitious and transformative global development agenda.”

Clearly the country has much to celebrate in March 2017 when it ‘comes of age’ and marks its 60th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule with events both in Ghana and the UK. Mr Smith added: “With more than half a million Ghanaians living in the UK I believe our strong sense of family and our warmth as a people are certainly something to celebrate.”

■ For tickets to the Literacy Drive Charity Ball and more information contact Shibani Rao on 07401 893100 or email: shibani@universallearningsolutions.org. Website: www.universallearningsolutions.org

FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2016 THE VOICE | 21

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A SUCCESS STORY IN LITERACY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA To date, over 24,000 government school teachers have been trained in this programme and it has reached over 1 million pupils

U

niversal Learning Solutions (ULS), a UK-based not-forprofit organisation, is working in close partnership with governments across the developing world to transform literacy rates. Our work enables all children to read and write with confidence and enjoy their right to learn. Through this we believe we can release each child’s infinite potential.

Our work is based upon Jolly Phonics, the world’s leading synthetic phonics programme, which has been proven by a range of independent academic studies to significantly improve English literacy levels, especially for pupils for whom English is a second language.

Thanks to a unique philanthropic offer from the publisher of Jolly Phonics – Jolly Learning Ltd, we are able to offer high-quality free literacy training and materials to all government schools.

J

olly Learning Ltd has philanthropically provided over £1 million worth of training and materials and ULS has leveraged £1.8million in funding from the Nigerian g o v ernment.

The Jolly Phonics project began in Nigeria in 2006 when two of the founders of ULS, Gary and Naomi Foxcroft, set up a school for disadvantaged children in the Niger Delta. Gary and Naomi did not want the pupils leaving this school to suffer the same fate as so many children across Nigeria who leave school still unable to read and write. Naomi, who had previously been an early year’s teacher in the UK and seen the effectiveness of the Jolly Phonics programme in her own classroom, approached the publisher of the Jolly Phonics programme to request some free Jolly Phonics resources. The Managing Director of Jolly Learning Ltd, Christopher Jolly, kindly agreed and this was the start of an incredibly valuable partnership.

Unsurprisingly the Jolly Phonics programme transformed literacy levels at this school and quickly neighbouring schools and the state government saw the significant potential of the programme, leading to all schools in the state adopting the programme. Due to its incredible success on literacy rates, the programme quickly spread to other states and in 2012 Universal Learning Solutions was established to respond to this strong demand from the government for the widespread use of Jolly Phonics across Nigeria.

Through capacity building and skill sharing, government officials are empowered to ensure the long-term sustainability of our work.

O Reach Society aim to inspire youth to career success

n Friday, 8th April Reach Society will be rolling out its 5th Careers Conference for around 800 young people, and some parents. Everyone will gain from the interactions with more than 50 professionals from the Black community; more than 20 employers and exhibitors; and the Perfect 10 workshops on the secrets of success. Attendees will also hear from the distinguished Sir Geoff Palmer, Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences, Heriot Watt University who invented the Barley Abrasion Process which transformed the UK brewing industry.

Dr Dwain Neil, chairman, Reach Society invites young people to come along to this extraordinary event during the coming Easter break.

At 10.00 on 8 April, the doors will open at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. To gain admission everyone aged 14 and older, are invited to register their names via the Society’s email address - info@reachsociety.com .

About Universal Learning Solutions munity and be inspired to choose pathways to success.

Since 2010 Reach Society has rolled out many opportunities for young people such as the annual Careers Conference series, the UCFB Reach Society Scholarship programme (see photo of Demani Jules-Carbon on the right receiving a scholarship Award from Prof.

Frank Chinegwundoh); the ICE Books project and Readers Award, the monthly networking events for professionals, the inspirational outreach visits to schools, colleges and community groups; and the publication of a series of inspirational books.

In 2010 three professional men Rob Neil, Professor Donald Palmer and Dr Dwain Neil founded Reach Society. Its vision is to make it easy for young people, especially boys and young men from the Black community, to interact with high achieving professionals from their com-

Leading black professionals will gather at a special event in London in April

SUCCESS: Doctor Richardson with Reach Society scholarship winner, Demani Jules-Carbon (right)

22 | THE VOICE FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2016

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Did you know?

Facts about Ghana

SMILES: Ashanti Tribe

GEOGRAPHY

• Ghana, previously known as the Gold Coast, has a population of just over 27 million living mainly in coastal savannahs and tropical forests covering 92,000 square miles • Its climate is tropical with 2 main seasons wet and dry – with average temperature range of 21 – 28 degrees Celsius • The Prime Meridian passes the port of Tema in Ghana; the country is closer to the “centre” of the Earth than any other country in the World Demographics • The largest ethnic group is the Ashanti tribe • The median age of Ghanaian citizens is 30 years and the average household size is 3.6 persons

• Ghana is a largely Christian country – 71.2% Christians; 17.6% Muslims • The most-spoken language is English used by 67.1% of the population

NATURAL RESOURCES

• Ghana’s Jubilee Oilfield contains up to 3 billion barrels of crude oil discovered in 2007, the 5th largest reserves in Africa • Ghana is the World’s leading producer of cocoa and second largest producer of gold in Africa behind South Africa

GOVERNMENT

• Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to declare independence from European colonisation on 6 March 1957. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was the first Prime Minister. The country now has a unitary presidential constitutional democracy with a parliamentary multiparty system

• The flag of Ghana consists of the colours of red, gold and green, with a black star

FOREIGN RELATIONS

• All the last 3 U.S Presidents – Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama – made diplomatic trips to Ghana • The former Secretary-General of the U.N, Kofi Annan, is Ghanaian

RELEVANT SECTORS EDUCATION

• Ghana introduced a new Education Plan in 2007 to provide universal free primary education by 2015 in line with the Millennium Development Goals • UNESCO found that over half of young women (aged 15-29) and over one-third of young men who had completed six years of primary school were not able to read a full sentence in 2008.

HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE

• Life expectancy is 66 years; infant mortality is 39 per 1,000 live births • Ghana has a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) described as the most successful in African by the Bill Gates Foundation

FAMOUS PEOPLE OF GHANAIAN ANCESTRY

Promoting Global Learning, Universal Learning Solutions and The Voice invite you to the premier Literacy Drive Charity Ball in support of Education in Ghana

• • • • • • • • •

Kofi Annan,, 7th Secretary-General of the U.N Lord Paul Boateng, British Labour Party politician, Member of House of Lord, Solicitor Adam Afriyie, British Conservative Party politician and multi-millionaire Ozwald Boateng, fashion designer Idris Elba, actor Boris Kodjoe, actor Reggie Yates, television presenter Afua Hirsch, journalist Michael Essien – ex Chelsea Footballer

UNDER THE DISTINGUISHED PATRONAGE OF

His Excellency Mr Victor Emmanuel Smith High Commissioner of Ghana Date: Saturday 6 February 2016 Time: 6.30 pm

Venue: Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel, Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 9PY Tickets are available at Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thelitercy-drive-charity-ball-tickets-20996381743 or visit: www.voice-online.co.uk

FAMOUS: Kofi Annan

STAR: Michael Essien

PRICE: £100 Dress: Black Tie/ Traditional

(Charity Registration No. 1158202)

VIEW: Gold Coast