To celebrate World Book Day, Farafina was at Reagan Memorial Baptist Girls’ Secondary School on Tuesday, 19th of April, 2011 to encourage reading among the students.
The event started with a brief biography of World Book Day given by Mirian. After that, the students listened as Chinedu Chidi, Debaters Season II winner, gave a short talk on the importance of reading. ‘Reading helps to improve your vocabulary’, he said. Afterwards, he read an excerpt of Purple Hibiscus. The excerpt was apt as the students could literally feel Kambili’s pain as her father poured hot water on her feet. And of course, they were very eager to make comments when it was time for the interactive session. ‘As far as I’m concerned, that’s not love, that’s child abuse’, one of them said. ‘How can my father do that to me, another said, I would just run away’. Yet another student said, ‘To me, I think the father was too hyper’; and everyone burst into laughter.
It was an interesting event as the kids were eager to learn as demonstrated in the number of questions asked. They were also very honest; Chinedu asked if they would have reported to the appropriate authorities if they had been in Kambili’s shoes and they all shouted Yes!!! Of course, we got all these responses from the kids because their teachers weren’t present!
Prizes were given to the best students in English and Literature in S.S 1 and S.S 2. Also, Farafina donated copies of Zahrah the Windseeker, June 12 and Purple Hibiscus to the school library.
Well, for us, we had a fulfilling time with those kids and we hope to do it again some other time! If you are planning a similar event and you would like Farafina to be a part of it, please send a mail to [email protected].
