Chimezie Anajama: Giving Hope To Nigeria's Street Children Through NwuliaReads

P

PressRoom

Guest
What do you think of Street Kids when you see them? They are young children who roam the neighbourhoods. With a very helpless look, they take up sub-standard jobs, that sometimes lead them into trouble. They are used as errand boys in motor parks, and other public places – all in search of daily living. Not all of them are without living parents, but economic and family situation have made life seemingly hopeless for them. Chimezie Anajama, a young university graduate, and a Corps member in Uyo picks up these streets kids, identifies with them, and gives them hope of reading and literacy through her NwuliaReads Initiative. She is Nigerian Bulletin's Feature on our Weekend Spotlight.

------
Tell us about yourself:
I am Chimezie Vivien Anajama. I am a product of University of Nigeria, Nsukka where I studied Sociology and Anthropology. I hail from Agulu, Anambra state. I realised that something might in for me here in social advocacy, literature, leadership and humanitarian paths when I began writing unpublished essays critiquing government policies an actions in her primary to secondary school days. I also fell hopelessly in love with reading earlier in life and has moulded me into this person i am. I sometimes pretend to call myself a writer, - occasional one though. Travelling is a hobby that has exposed me further and helped me to understand better.

Chimezie.jpg
What is the mission and vision of your initiative – NwuliaReads? The Vision is to be a leading educational platform in building an army of readers and thinkers with strong leadership potentials.

Our Mission is to make literacy activities, leadership and learning appealing to children, teens and young people as a way of building them for their future roles, with special focus on disadvantaged groups.

NwuliaReads- what is the inspiration behind the name? NwuliaReads is mixture of Igbo and English. Nwulia is Igbo, a coined form of "nulia" which is a verb to "Anuli" (happiness), with the “n” hyphened on top, but for easy pronunciation, i had to add the w to the n and make it distinct. I got it from the Igbo name, Kanyinulia, which is “Let us rejoice” So to the brand name NwuliaReads, simply means “Read in Happiness and Fun”. I realise that reading is becoming a sort of punishment to younger people and young people.

Does you have a base for NwuliaReads? Sincerely, it just does not have a precise base now. I like to call it a mobile initiative for now. But I hope on that soon - that is basing it. It is reflexive of my lifestyle and travelling tendencies. NwuliaReads has travelled to Enugu, Delta, Abuja and the last one is Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

Why Street Kids? Street kids are one of the disadvantaged groups in Nigerian society. The concept of Street children is a multi-layered problem. You are seeing street children, but behind the scene is a breakage of so many institutions from family, society and government. Everybody is responsible for what is happening to those children and if we all do not take responsibility for them now, we should be ready for their actions tomorrow.
nwulia reads 2.jpg
How do you identify and connect with the street kids? What I've noticed is that our society tends to ignore these children and give up hopes on them. What we do is to work with organisations and homes for street children, where we go to with our resources. Going to meet them directly may pose a challenge that our team do not have the capacity to handle for now.

What has been the success of NwuliaReads so far? The important thing is that more people now realise the value of literacy for young people. The last literacy program we had in Port Harcourt was one of the biggest accomplishments so far. We had up to 50 Street Children who read out stories, and were able to train them. As a matter of fact, one out of the street kids was able to us a graphic of the story read with beautiful images that capture the actions in the story.

nwulia reads 3.jpg
What has surprised you the most on this journey? Oh, surprises... (laughs) One of the positive surprises is that you're able to shift, I mean there is a paradigm shift. And you're able to transform young people's lives. One of the negative surprises is when you're trying to organise an event, and then people back out at the last minute. That could weigh you down in a way, but we keep moving... And one of those things that keep us going is that we receive book donations from writers, and organisations to support our literacy program.

nwulia reads 4.jpg
How many kids have passed through the literacy program, and after NwuliaReads, how do you keep tabs on these children? More than the numbers, our Literacy advocacy program is looking at successfully training over 1000 Children - which is why we employ services of literary fellows to coach them in a playful-interactive manner. And we follow up on them after each program to know how they are faring. And really, a lot of them have improved on their reading culture.

Nwulia Reads 1.jpg

WATCH NOW: Photo Video of NwuliaReads Teaching Street Children:





ALSO WATCH: Nwulia Reads: The Changing Times For Street Children In Nigeria

Chimezie Anajama can be reached on Facebook
NwuliaReads Initiative, @nwuliareadsinitiative
 

Attachments

  • Chimezie Anajama (1).jpg
    Chimezie Anajama (1).jpg
    56.4 KB · Views: 146
  • Chimezie Anajama.jpg
    Chimezie Anajama.jpg
    67.4 KB · Views: 150
  • Chimezie.jpg
    Chimezie.jpg
    163.3 KB · Views: 149
Back
Top