NGO inspires communities to love reading

International Needs Ghana, a Christian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has ended a seven month reading and learning project to teach reading skills and literacy in poor communities.

The Reading Clinic, since its inception, has contributed to improving the reading skills of 1,150 persons in 11 communities, in eight districts across the country, translating into improved literacy and numeracy.

Mr Ben Awah, Programmes Assistant of the NGO, speaking in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a Reading Clinic in Agave Kuve, one of the benefitiary communities in the Volta Region, said, the closure of schools due to Covid-19, called for a renewed attitude towards reading as that was a sure way to enhance literacy.

He said, in June 2020, the NGO commenced a community based “Reading Clinic” in its operational areas; Volta, Greater Accra and Central Region to instil the habit of reading in pupils and students alike.

He noted that, the intervention was intended to, amongst other objectives, contribute to improved reading, comprehension, spelling, grammar, sentence formation and numeracy of participants.

"Currently 1150 children comprising 445 boys and 705 girls across 11 communities in eight districts in three regions have participated in the reading clinic," he said, adding that some 45 mentors within the communities assisted with activities for the initiative.

Through the organization’s monitoring visits and interactions with participants, it was observed that there has been some improvement in their abilities to read, he said.

In addition to the core activities of the reading clinic, he informed that other educative and fun activities were introduced to sustain the interest of participants including routine health talks in partnership with the Ghana Health Service.

The NGO climaxed the Reading Clinic in all communities with a competition to assess the spelling and reading abilities of participants as well their abilities to form sentences. They were given learning materials to aid them in their studies.