AUN Adds Feed And Read for Girls To Achieve Literacy For All

Following the huge success of the Almajiri Feed & Read program, an intervention scheme initiated by the American University of Nigeria for street boys, the University has kicked off a similar program for vulnerable girls.

AUN’s Feed and Read for Girls, launched on February 11, 2016, at the University’s Center for Community Development is funded from a small grant by the Irish Government and the university’s own resources. The program is coordinated by the AUN Academy, whose students and staff have volunteered to mentor the young girls.

On February 1, at an occasion attended by its Founder, H.E. Atiku Abubakar and Adamawa state Governor Mohammed Jibrilla, AUN had launched the USAID-funded Technology Enhanced Learning for All (TELA), which uses tablets and radio to provide basic education to 22,000 at-risk children, including Almajiri boys, in the Yola-Jimeta area.

“When you educate girls, everything in the country changes - infant mortality declines, infectious diseases aren’t going to be spread, people have a smaller family which allows these women to go out and make the change that is needed,” said AUN President, Dr. Margee Ensign. She stressed the need for Nigeria to commit to the education of the girl child. 



The beneficiaries of the program are girls who have been disadvantaged. Some are orphans and some, too, are IDPs. As the children will be leaders in various professions if educated, Dr Ensign said they are going to change Nigeria for good. She thanked the Irish government for their financial support in the project.

President Ensign who encouraged everyone to continue to put in their best in the project to ensure its success added, “We can make it a national project.”
 
The program’s Coordinator and Executive Director of AUN Schools, Mrs. Nkem Uzowulu, thanked the President for ensuring that vulnerable girls are being incorporated into TELA. She said that the facilitators for the project are mainly students from AUN Academy and some volunteers from the town.

A firm believer in the project, Mrs. Uzowulu said it is an opportunity for the students of the Academy to touch the lives of the needy in a much more personal way.

The Executive Director introduced the project to the audience, saying that the children will be taught how to read, and basic mathematics. Each of the 70 girls registered for the take-off phase will get a meal a day, just like the boys.

By Omorogbe Omorogiuwa