Reading stories to children is one of our society’s greatest pleasures and we know reading to children can have a lasting impact and can open doors to imagination, learning, and a love of literature.
The Nabit people, located in the Upper East Region of Ghana, have many wonderful folk stories that have been handed down from generation to generation. Teacher-candidates from the UBC Okanagan Faculty of Education worked with two local Junior high schools to take 7 of those stories and create English versions (English is the official language in Ghana). The high school students provided superb, colourful images to go with the stories and did all of the translation, the end result is 7 culturally relevant stories that almost everyone in the community can recognize.
The Nabit people are a proud people with a rich culture. Much of the economy is subsistence farming, the region is one of the poorest in Ghana and there are many challenges in providing education and resources. In the Nabdam school district, there are limited books which available for children when they are learning to read. What books are accessible are often donated from overseas, and while helpful, are often not culturally relevant.
At the celebration held to hand over the books on our final day, one community member picked up a book and started sharing it with the pre-schoolers who were watching the fun. He was delighted with the books, and the opportunity to read a familiar story to the kids and commented that” these are very important to our people, we NEED them!”. Indeed every adult who saw the books recognized the stories immediately, appreciated the care and detail the student artwork provided and wanted to know how they might be able to obtain copies or if they would be in the library. These books will increase opportunities for literacy and provide enjoyment for all ages. As we leave, the momentum to gather material for future books is already underway.
These stories have an additional benefit. Dovetailing with the Education project was Robyn Giffen’s Master’s research which is to create a writing system for the Nabit people so that they can begin to write in their own language as well as in English. Robyn was in Ghana at the same time as the education students and through the results of her research and the work of the local Nabit Language Committee, the books will also introduce some of the first Nabit words into print. A longer term plan is to put bi-lingual copies of these books in every primary school and local libraries and for private purchase.
Interest in the books is widespread across the Nabdam school district and we know it has opened up possibilities for all ages. Fundraising activities are underway both in Canada and in Ghana to ensure that copies of the books become available in the primary.