The KIM's Learning Sessions (KLS), a community-based children's learning initiative, has inspired pupils of Siriyiri E/A Basic School in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region to inculcate the habits of reading and learning.

KLS is an initiative of 10-year-old son of the CEO of Mara Foods and it is aimed at supporting children in rural and deprived communities to acquire reading, writing and basic ICT skills.

The ten-year-old boy, Kieran Iqbal Mwinekumo together with his peers in the company of his mother, Maria Johana Yuorpor and a team of volunteers lit up the candle of inspiration in the pupils to read and learn for better futures.

At the learning outreach over the weekend, about 100 pupils of Basic 1 and 2 grades of the school benefited from the teaching and learning activities. The learning sessions focused on developing the literacy and language skills, primarily, of reading and writing as well as the combined productive and receptive skills of the pupils.

Thus, they were taken through interactive sessions on reading to improve their letter and word recognition abilities and their overall reading skills. The pupils were also engaged in penmanship and basic writing activities to help
improve their writing abilities.

Principally, the learning activities were carried out through peer-to-peer learning and guided practice approaches to stimulate and sustain the children's interest for learning in a permanent fashion.

Awards and admonitions

Overall, a total of 14 pupils who performed impressively during the learning activities were awarded with packages of learning materials. Meanwhile, the children were encouraged not to rest on their laurels, on the part of those who received awards, or give up on their their abilities but to continue learning
and improving themselves.

Daniel Osei Tuffour, the Executive Director of Leadership Excellence Group,
interacting with the children during the outreach, encouraged them to be lovers of reading and learning and that they should endeavour to read their books at all times and do their homework and assignments.

He admonished that it was only when they read and learn that they could become the engineers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, business moguls, and the many other
professionals they wanted to become.

Appreciation

The teachers of the school who were at the outreach expressed their profound
gratitude to the KIM's Learning Sessions for choosing the school to create lasting impact.

They said they would continue to give their best in ensuring the children learned and became proficient in their language skills. The children could not also hide their joy as they beamed with smiles amidst cheery activities as they returned home.

About KIMs Learning Sessions

Kieran Iqbal Mwinekumo (KIM), the 10-year-old brain behind the KIM's Learning
Sessions initiative, conceived the idea when he followed his enterprising mother to rural communities where she trained women on vocational and business development skills, during which he saw that children who came with their mothers loitered aimlessly if not distracted their mothers' concentration on training activities.

Then he thought, "Why don't we develop a concept to engage the children separately in learning activities while their mothers are engaged in their training activities?" hence the birth of KIM's Learning Sessions (KLS).

The initiative is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) of ensuring equal access to education by all children by 2030.