BY Deborah Onatunde

Been a yearly custom, a non governmental organisation, Imagine Rotary club, has  convened a 2-day  career development and literacy project to  promote reading habits among the young ones, as well as enhance their efficiency to read and write.

The Organisation which has  members from diverse fields and professions organised the event in Ota, Ogun State, to celebrate September 2022 World Literacy day, as well  as give back to the community.

The pupils were engaged with diverse activities from book reading, mentoring, career development trainings and a donation of writing materials at  different schools.

The president of the rotary club, Ota,  Engineer Alade Juwon stated that  the purpose of the initiative was directed at encouraging students in reading.

Stating that it is a continuous programme, he said: “The main programme is world literacy and education. The purpose is to encourage students in reading and it is not only reading.

“Once they read a book, they should understand the content of that book to explain what they’ve read. It is a continuous programme, we would come here often to see how far children can read,

A Career initiative was also held to educate students on a better career path.

10 schools in Ogun state were featured for this seasoned from public and private schools, as pupils were given edifying books in career growth.

Mrs. Adejoke Taiwo, an head teacher of Saint James Anglican primary school Ota, spoke immensely on the importance of been able to read and write adequately, stating readers are leaders.

She said it serves as an encouragement to the pupil to take reading seriously in other to get something from it.

“The rotary club Ota came here to celebrate the world literacy day and there are so many things that I love about this because it serves as an encouragement to our pupils.

“They are able to know that when you give seriousness to reading, there are somethings that you actually get. Another thing is all the rotarians that came, they served as a mentor to all learners and I know they’ve learnt something from them,” she said.

During an interview, a member of Rotary Club, Ota, Mr. Abidemi Olatoyi Ajayi, a legal practitioner and the principal of Olatoyi Ajayi practitioners emphasized the future of the club is bright and they would continue to do more.

Olatoye further spoke on the importance of giving back to the children and community, disclosing every months schools are  been picked on random to carry out the reading excersise and beyond.

He stated that September are designated for Basic Education and Literacy projects to build a better future.

“In Rotary, the month of September is assigned as the basic education and literacy month and this is one of the ways we give back to children in our community.

“We find it very important at Rotary International at our district level to be asked to pick a school and carry out this reading exercise which is why we’re here today.

“The future of this organisation is very bright for Rotary. It is an organisation of over a 100 years and Rotary club, Ota, itself, we’ve our 41st president,” he said.

Mrs. Oyedeje Janet, teacher at Local Government primary school, Ota, said it was a great event which would surely have an influence on the pupils, while other teachers shared their views on the creative initiative set up by the Imagine Rotary Club.

“I believe this is a very interesting programme because it allows the students to read what they gave to them,” she said.