Education Access
Book Buddies has reached 3,000 children with 5,000 books
Ashezi Naomi Akwashiki started Book Buddies to read with children in internally displaced persons camps, and since October 2023 it has reached more than 3,000 children, distributed over 5,000 books and trained 20 teachers.
Book Buddies has been covering teachers’ salaries at the IDP Sharing Prosperity School in Kuchingoro Camp for more than 14 months. Three internally displaced persons camps in Abuja have a Book Buddies book club, and four schools in Maiduguri in North East Nigeria are partners. Since October 2023 the organisation has held weekly book club sessions and literacy classes in IDP camps and schools in underserved communities. It has reached more than 3,000 children. It has distributed over 5,000 books. It has trained 20 teachers to make reading more engaging, and for more than 14 months it has helped keep an IDP school open by supporting the salaries of 15 teachers.
Ashezi Naomi Akwashiki, a Grade 7 student at International Community School, Abuja, started it when she was 9. She had always loved reading, she says, and on a visit to an IDP camp she met children who were just like her, "but many of them had never owned a book or read for fun." "I remember thinking how unfair it was that something that had brought me so much joy was something they had never experienced," she says.
“It was never meant to become an organisation. I simply wanted to read with children and share books with them.”
Ashezi Naomi Akwashiki
It began as reading together. After a while, she says, she noticed the children were becoming more confident as well as better readers. "They started asking questions, sharing ideas, speaking in front of others, and even helping younger children read," she says. "Children who were once too shy to speak began reading aloud, sharing their ideas, and encouraging others."
Book Buddies also organises holiday reading programmes, book reviews, public speaking sessions, excursions and environmental activities.
"As I have grown, so has my dream," she says. "That is why I am building the Young Changemakers Network," where young people will learn to identify problems in their communities, work together to solve them and encourage others to do the same.
"I am still just a young girl who loves books," she says. "I still get nervous before speaking at events, and I am still learning every day."
"I hope that every child we reach will one day become someone who helps another child," she says.