For four summers now, Worldreader has been bringing reading material to children not just during the school year, but also during the summer holidays. Dubbed Vacation Reading School (VRS), the program brings volunteers from abroad and children from Eastern Ghana together for a few weeks. As in previous years, children, when exposed to culturally relevant books of their choosing, quickly developed a passion for reading. See for yourself.

“I have never seen so many books at one place before! It makes me sad that I am going to leave this e-reader.. I really wish I had an e-reader of my own..”

9-year-old Belinda Oye, Adeiso Methodist Primary 3

“What I enjoyed most during the VRS is the peace and calmness that I had to read as many books as I could at a go. I didn’t have to worry about exercises, tests, and anything else. I think the books I have read during the VRS can last me for the rest of the vacation.”

Freda Owusuaa, 11 years old, Kade Primary 5

But this year was even more special! Worldreader crowned the usual reading activities with a writing workshop facilitated by one of our partner publishers, Kwesi Amoak. Kwesi is also the author of Arise Ghana Youth, Quest for Excellence and Kwame Nkrumah’s 101 Quotes. In 2011, he was instrumental in efforts by the Ghana Writers Association to inspire reading and writing amongst the youth.

Here is what 13-year old Felicity had to say:

“One thing I would miss most about VRS is the writing workshop. I love reading, but I never knew I was capable of expressing myself in writing. I loved each and every writing lesson and I enjoyed the results of my writing and I am now addicted to it and I will make sure I get better at it.”

And this was precisely the goal: to get these already enthusiastic kids not only reading, but ignite their interest in writing as a means of enhancing their creativity and self confidence. During these sessions, they were introduced to the art of writing short stories, poetry and journaling. Students also had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Kwesi Amoak and present their very first literary work for feedback and encouragement.

But most of all, four winning students and their stories are now part of a student anthology published on our free mobile reading application, Worldreader Mobile, and available for million of people to read and discover.

Simple as their stories and poems are, this is the beginning of a journey for some of these students: a journey similar to former Worldreader student Kate Okanta, who currently shares several of her poems on Worldreader Mobile.

As we present Colour, and Other Poems and Stories from Worldreader’s iREAD, an anthology from the work of four of these students on Worldreader Mobile, we are pleased that VRS 2014 has been able to inspire this. We may have discovered not only a generation of avid readers but young writers as well.

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Read the Worldreader student anthology by downloading Worldreader Mobile today.