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Recent Events: Aunty Ayo Students Meet LEAP Africa Award Winner at BookCorner Event

Submitted by admin on 23 October 2013

 
Students at Aunty Ayo’s Girls’ Comprehensive Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in Ikoyi, Lagos got the chance to meet with 2010 LEAP Africa Award Winner and founder of the Sports Leaders Programme Chinasa Mandy Ukandu at the launch of ZODML’s second BookCorner. The BookCorner Project is a ZODML initiative aimed at getting books into secondary schools across Nigeria. 
Through the project, local junior and senior secondary schools receive 400 books covering various genres, reference and academic titles, as well as two bookcases, a large round table, and four chairs. ZODML also trains book prefects nominated by the school to run the BookCorner, and programme officers visit the schools once a month to get feedback, update the book collections, and award reading certificates to students. ZODML also invites a Book Ambassador, a young person working in creative fields (such as music, film, fashion, and visual arts) who love to read and wish to give their time to encourage secondary school students to do the same, to the presentation of each BookCorner. Yesterday's event was attended by a number of the junior and secondary schools' students, their teachers and principals, representatives of the Ikoyi-Obalende Local Government Area, and ZODML Trustee Dr Arinze Agbim. The afternoon kicked off with a prayer followed by a brief introduction by Mark Oise, ZODML's Head of Operations, during which a short documentary on ZODML's work was screened. Oise also spoke about the goals of the BookCorner and introduced Ukandu to the audience. A former professional football player, Chinasa Ukandu attended trainings in the UK sponsored by the British Council. After returning to Nigeria, she established the Sports Leaders Programme (SLP) in 2007. A further collaboration with the British Council led to the creation of Youth Sports Initiatives, an offshoot of Community Action Through Sport (CATS), which uses sports to engage primary and secondary school students and teach them leadership and life skills which they can put into practice in their communities. Since its inception, SLP has trained 280 young leaders through its “Sport Leadership” course, and a further 1800 pupils through the “Fit For Challenge” (FFC) and "Play2live" programmes. Ukandu read aloud from one of her favourite books, The Bottled Leopard  by Chukwuemeka Ike, and spoke about her life and achievements. She encouraged the students to take full advantage of the BookCorner and the opportunities reading offers, as well as to pursue their passions and pay close attention to time management. Two students - Ukachi Oluchi (in JSS3) and Faith Anunsion (SSS2) - shared reviews they had written of books available to borrow from the BookCorner. The bookshelves were officially handed over by Ukandu and Dr Agbim to Mrs Onimasau and Mrs Adebo, the principals of Aunty Ayo's Junior and Senior divisions. A vote of thanks was given by student Princess Jubril on behalf of the schools, and by Dr Agbim on behalf of ZODML. [slideshow_deploy id='2296']   Read about our first BookCorner Event at Girls Junior Secondary Grammar School. Learn more about ZODML's community projects.
Want to get involved? Learn how you can help ZODML reach more local government students across Nigeria.
 A special thank you to LEAP Africa for their support in organising the event!