Building a Reading
Culture
for a Better Africa
lifelong learning opportunities across African communities
About Us
Reading Awareness Society for Development in Africa (RASDA) is a non-governmental and non-profit making organization with an unquantifiable passion for the promotion of reading culture in Africa.
RASDA was established on January 17, 2007, and over the years, she has taken great and effective steps to rigorously campaign against the neglect of books especially by children and youths of Nigeria. The activities of RASDA have been centred on making all to see the importance of developing the culture of READING and literacy development, hence our slogan is….. READING BRINGS OUT THE STAR IN YOU.
Late Emeritus Prof. Ayo Banjo, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria gave the keynote address on the day of the launching of RASDA
Olori Bukola Ladoja
How it started
In August, 2006, as I sat in the church auditorium on that Sunday morning, I watched the teenagers of my church come out in different designs of ‘adire’-the traditional tie and dye of the South-Western part of Nigeria.
The occasion was the thanksgiving service for their anniversary. It was a memorable day as the teenagers ministered in songs, drama and choreography. In fact, they were wonderful. The theme of their anniversary was “GROOMING SUCCESSORS’ GENERATION NEXT.”
As I continued to watch with awe and admiration, suddenly, the Holy Spirit ministered to me. He showed me the youths beyond the enclave of my church to the teeming population of youths in Nigeria. The question the Holy Spirit was constantly putting in my mind was “ARE WE GROOMING QUALITY SUCCESSORS?”
Our Objectives
1
To motivate Nation-wide reading awareness programmes
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To initiate and set up Reading Resource Centres in communities, towns, cities, and rural areas for comfortable reading atmosphere
2
To help inculcate reading habits/reading culture as a way of developing an all-round personality of an individual with implications for social and moral empowerment
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To initiate and fund billboards, hand out, posters to encourage and foster reading habits
To initiate and encourage student’s Reading Clubs
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To initiate and fund mobile libraries in strategic rural and urban geographical zones to encourage reading culture by having access to libraries within their area
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To give motivational Award/Prizes to corporate bodies or individuals who share our vision of promoting reading habits
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To set up Reading Clinics and Reading Therapy Centres in strategic places, to assist children/adults with reading disabilities
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To train teachers on strategies of literacy development in the classroom, thereby entrenching reading comprehension proficiency among the students
ACTIVITIES
RASDA has since inception began to engage in effective campaign programmes backed-up with passion and resolute commitment.
Our collaborative efforts with government, schools, libraries, institutions of higher learning, multinational organizations, publishers and some private individuals has been tremendously successful and encouraging.
