Women4Africa (W4A) recently teamed up with a charity in Accra Ghana known as ‘Future Leaders UCC’ to host the first Young Africa Writes competition for children ages 10-12. The competition which is the brainchild of Women4Africa founder Tola Onigbanjo, which is to be held annually and is used to help inspire children to write creatively and advance their literary skills took place in 2012.
W4A chose to team up with Future Leaders UCC for the competition because of their commitment to giving Ghanaian children, who live in poverty, educational opportunities they would not normally have access to. They have done this by providing math and reading classes to the underprivileged, paying school tuition for children who families cannot afford to send their sons or daughters to school, and by providing tutoring.
The 2012 competition winner was by Mary Asare, a ten-year-old girl, who wrote about what she would do if she was President of Ghana for a day. She was given money towards her educational expenses and her school was given money towards books for its library. Joint runners up, Lawrencia Adje and Iva Ntow, were also given money towards educational expenses.
W4A itself, was founded to empower African women to make positive changes in their communities. Three of the main areas they focus on are: the sexual exploitation of girls, child labor, and empowering women. The organisation hosts an Annual Gala Awards ceremony which recognises and celebrates the best of African Women. The next awards ceremony will be held on May 18th 2013.
