Raphael Jov Abuja
The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity), Sahara Deck – Abuja City Centre, has aligned itself with UNESCO and other progressive groups to commemorate the 2022 International Literacy Day, themed: Transforming Literacy learning Spaces.
Through its previous advocacy programs to promote literacy in the Nigerian polity and specifically, within the Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and environs, NAS – Sahara Deck launched the ‘Adopt-a-child’ project in December 2021 to address the issue of out of school children within the FCT.
We have previously adopted Karu orphanage home, Karu, Abuja; where we donated books to equip their library, as well as computers and Air conditioners to create a conducive learning environment for the kids in the orphanage.
In marking this year’s International Literacy Day, NAS Sahara Deck had opted to donate some reading and writing materials to a school in the Kuje Community in Abuja. The decision to start with a school in the Kuje Area Council was borne out of a sample taken from schools in the suburbs, which revealed that they lack adequate learning materials.
We are further appalled by the available statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), that over 52,000 children are currently out of school in Abuja. And out of 40.8 million children of school age in Nigeria, 10.2 million children are estimated to be out of school.
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Sahara Deck under my leadership would also engage with the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, and the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, to increase school enrolment to take more children away from the streets and sponsor them up till Senior secondary school of learning.
By observing the International Literacy Day, as commemorated around the world every 8 September, we are simply sustaining the tempo across the globe to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of human dignity and human rights and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society as championed by UNESCO.
