WEEKEND READING EXERCISE

Onuesoke Foundation Library making waves in our rural communities.. Photo speaks:

IF ONE CAN DO THIS MUCH, THEN HOW MUCH MORE CAN WE ALL DO IF WE COME TOGETHER?

Onuesoke Foundation has produced  five hundred thousand copies of exercise  books ready to be given out to children in rural communities to encourage them in the practice of writing and the importance for learning. Another giant step towards bridging the yawning lacuna which exist in the education of this young chaps.

The foundation has again showed her undying passion for the rural child who is precariously positioned in life be cause of geographical location. The child who wakes up  and goes to school with out text books nor writing material. The child who cuts off some branches of the 'dogonyaro' trees and boils them for malaria treatment. The child whose parents are uninformed about the importance of books and writing materials in learning in the form of Text  books and stationery without which proper learning is forestalled.

Onuesoke Foundation in collaboration with Mrs. Ete a good Deltan who made a good donation  to the foundation made the production of these free exercise  books possible. To recognize her magnanimity, the foundation printed these lot a brand customizining our donor on the booklets cover. This we believe will make these young chaps recognize and know that they are not alone in this world that persons like Mrs. Ete and the Onuesoke Foundation has got their backs.

Joins hands lets restore these great minds. Without your help, the task may not be fully achieved. Join Onuesoke Foundation and contribute your quota to this great mission.
The Rural Child Must Read initiative (RCMR) is a go!!!

EDUCATION FOR ALL..

Okiemute and her friends were not left in the weekend reading episode. Even though she is a food vendor, she always make out time to participate in the reading exercise. Education is the greatest gift you can give a child, every child deserves equal right to quality education. In Onuesoke Foundation, we help these young relatively less-privileged ones reach their dreams.

OKIEMUTE, THE FOOD VENDOR ALSO CAME...

It is very difficult at this point of the Rural Child Must Read programme (RCMR) not to get emotional as we are about moving the library to another community. Looking back we can only see kids with the passion and hunger to read and achieve destiny but might not reach their goals because life has brought with it, lots of hindrances and difficulties.
One of those kids is Okiemute, the chips vendor. Okiemute preferred to be in school than on the street where she has become a common food hawker. Okiemute's case leaves trace of tears in the eye when you watch her sitting with her book which she read passionately during our RCMR, abandoning her bucket of chips which she ought to be selling.

Okiemute is one typical example of situation and challenges being faced by this poor kids who hadn't the right to choose what life would offer them, that this programme 'RCMR' by Onuesoke Foundation has brought to bare. It is pathetic and heart crushing to see children with so much zest and zeal but with little opportunity. It is a rape of destiny when we fail to help this young stars actualize their dream and satisfy their curious quest for knowledge.
Lets help take as many Okiemutes as are out there away from the street and back to the classrooms. That's where they will be better...

IF WE ARE TO LOOK AT NIGERIA BEYOND OIL THEN WE MUST BRING BACK AGRICULTURE TO OUR CLASSROOM

The place of Agriculture in any economy cannot be over emphasized. For a nation to feed it self, is great pride. Agriculture has been the first existing industry since the creation of man followed by education.

Without food and education of how to live, the existence of man will be but brief vapor. Ironically, these two sectors of the economy have been the most neglected in third world counties.

About 40-60 percent of national economy is being produced from  Agriculture and  while about 70-80 percent of labor force is being engaged in Agriculture although not all at  national level but in small scale farming .

Today , Agriculture is beyond  peasant farming  but includes forestry to preserve our  green environment, wildlife and water sheds. It also includes live stock, live stock products, industrialization, manufacturing, processing and packaging. To operate in this scale of agriculture requires great skills for personnel to take up as skilled jobs and provision of services to agriculture product and the industry as a dynamic one is also a part of education for the people.

The importance of agriculture numerated is inimical to neglected.

1.        Food and fodder

2.       Source of livelihood

3.       Contribution to national revenue

4.        International trade

5.       Raw material

6.       Source of transportation revenue

7.       Storage and surplus market

8.       Foreign exchange resource

9.       National Development

10.   Employment

It is obvious that we have lost this sector to negligence and dependence on oil which is not a sure guarantee for national development today…

Don’t you think the best place to re-introduce sustainable national development through agriculture is in OUR SCHOOLS? 

TODAY'S WEEKEND READING EXERCISE WITH THE CHILDREN OF EMADADJA COMMUNITY

PHOTO SPEAKS:

THE CORE OF ONUESOKE FOUNDATION..

ONUESOKE FOUNDATION : Restoring nature, saving humanity. We engage in community development and climate change mitigation..

MOBILE LIBRARY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES

BOOKS! BOOKS! , They saw them in beautiful colors, so appealing to their eyes, they have nt seen books this much, beautiful colors, sizes, shapes ..picture books, story books, subject title books.....it was all books in the truck ,on the wall. on the shelves ,enchanting! their eyes sparkled with the story topic...ooh the pictures! and they were amazed at seeing books this much and they were hungry to pick all and read.....the word library was strange and new to many of them.....we had to explain..i personally did that our our local language . It has been fun all the way but we had some challenges....most of them could not read because they cant pronounce simple words..I SAW THE BACK DROP OF RURAL EDUCATION-THE RURAL TEACHER AND THE RURAL CHILD..
I SAW THE EFFECT ON THE RURAL CHILD....a child said "i will sleep inside here and read all the books at night"
they were over whelmed! if these children have no access to books, how can they develop the interest to read? ONUESOKE FOUNDATION LIBRARY IS PROVIDING THIS ACCESS TO RURAL CHILDREN.....

WHY WE MUST HELP THE RURAL CHILD TO READ

THE VERY ESSENCE OF OUR CONCERN OF THE LIFE OF THE RURAL CHILD.
THE RURAL CHILD IS NOT GOING TO OPERATE A RURAL SYSTEM IN ISOLATION FROM THE URBAN..HE IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE URBAN OF TOMORROW.
MANKIND HAS CAGED ITSELF IN A WORLD OF INFORMATION AND ONLY THE EDUCATED CAN OPERATE IN SUCH WORLD…
The world today has no time for the uneducated; information is engraved and encrypted in “word “and on everything for ease and functionality. Seeing and interpreting information by word on everything, product, machine, process and event is a sign that TECHNOLOGY AND READING is LIFE!.
Education for life is all about one action. The ability to READ, get information and interpreting the information as an instruction and carry out the action which is vital for maximum performance in any given social society by an individual operating in it.
The ability to do some transactions in the bank. Filling forms, the ability to use the cell phone to process and receive other information than voice call.
To be able to read information on a product, example an electrician that need to know the capacity of a cable, a welder who need to know the voltage of his equipment, a farmer who need to know the instruction on pest killer product , instruction at the AIRPORT that are written as sign posts ….this is endless.
If the rural child is going to operate in HIS world, shouldnt he be able to read…..?

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT TREES

Trees are all-mighty recyclers. They regulate our air quality through photosynthesis, absorbing nearly a ton of CO2 in a lifetime and produce about 260 pounds of oxygen a year. Now they are being used to recycle waste. Willow trees are used in Sweden, to clean sewage sludge, reuse waste water, and recycle liquid from landfills. The town spreads its waste around the trees, which, in turn, decompose and recycle it. Trees can also have an impact on the energy used for heating and cooling a building, reducing air conditioning costs by as much as 30 percent and saving 20 to 50 percent on energy for heating. This is because as well as providing shade, a large tree can also transpire as much as 378.5 liters (100 gallons) of water into the air per day. This has a cooling effect roughly equivalent to 10 single room-sized air conditioning units operating 20 hours a day!

PRACTICAL WAYS TO CURB THE READING DISABILITIES COMMON AMONG RURAL CHILDREN

In order to promote the reading skills in our primary schools and put an end to the reading disabilities among rural children, the following considerations should be attended to:

Teachers:Teachers should put away their nonchalant attitude towards the need of their pupils on reading skills; they must plan an effective program on reading instructions with a focus on promoting reading culture among pupils in their various schools.

School Authorities:The school authorities should introduce informal education of readiness for reading. Non-structured reading instruction should be introduced and the child’s ability to respond to the reading materials be observed.

Parents:Parents and guidance should provide a stimulating reading environment for their children and wards. They should encourage their children to read at home. Books should be provided for them to improve their reading efficiency. They should also encourage their children to watch kiddies Television program. This will go a long way in improving their phonetic and vocabulary development. The children should cultivate the habit of using their leisure to read for pleasure.

Government:Government at the Federal, State and Local levels should try as much as possible to provide appropriate materials for teaching reading skills. Also, libraries should be provided for our primary schools, since the absence of libraries also constitute a lot to pupil’s efficiency in reading skills.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE POOR READING SKILLS INHERENT IN MOST CHILDREN OF RURAL COMMUNITIES?

Objectively, good readers are phonemically aware, they understand the alphabetical principle and apply these skills in a fluent manner, they possess good grammatical and vocabulary skills. It is quite unfortunate that most children in the rural communities are devoid of these skills.

Some of the children in rural communities are raised in poverty and are not provided with the necessary human and material resources needed for good education by their parents. They are impoverished in English language due to their immediate environment, the reading practices and levels of some the parents of these children are relatively low. These children are likely to be at risk of reading failure. 

Similarly, some English teachers in schools are lagging behind in their approach to teaching reading comprehension. The effect is poor performance among students. These teachers lack methods of imparting reading skills to pupils. The condition is so bad that some pupils find it difficult to read and understand a simple word or sentence. It is awkward to see a primary 5 pupil who can hardly pronounce words like came, when, was, life etc. correctly.

Most rural schools lack libraries. This as well promotes the reading deficiency skills inherent in the life style of her pupils. These pupils are exposed to little or no reading materials to help build their vocabulary and grammatical skills.

The world is fast developing; the rural child has to change with the changing global world to be able to meet up with its demands. Possessing good grammatical and vocabulary skills is one of the basic requirements for this change. The ability to reader is one of the determinants of a student's success or failure. The rural child must form the habit of reading to perform well in all subjects. A good reader has better opportunity for greater achievements.