Harnessing Global Potential of Kids in Rural Communities
Peter Uzoho writes that the annual Reel Foundation Community Spelling Bee and Games Tournament for young children of Agbado Oke Aro, an underserved community in Lagos State, has provided a veritable platform for participants to test their abilities in intellectual games and also prepare them to compete with their peers globally
On a certain Friday, 150 children under the age of 14 from Agbado, an underserved and low income community in Ifako/ Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State, swarmed St. Peters African Church Primary School, Agbado/ Oke Aro, where they competed for medals and other juicy prizes at the 2019 Community Spelling Bee and Games Tournament put up by REEL Foundation.
REEL is an acronym for ‘Reading to Enhance Excellence in Learning’. The foundation is a non-profit humanitarian organisation focused on enhancing access to quality learning in the underserved and low income communities in South-West Nigeria.
Sponsored by the Total E&P Nigeria Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Limited and some other corporate entities, this year’s edition just like the maiden edition had the Spelling Bee, Chess, and Scrabble competitions in which the children participated in different categories according to their area of interest and age. The yearly competition is the foundation’s way of enhancing children’s learning and boosting their ability to compete and be relevant locally and globally.
Commencement
Upon their arrival at the venue of the wellpublicised tournament, the excited kids who were anxious to see the games begin in record time, were assembled and addressed by the founder of the organisation, who warmly welcome them to another tournament after a successful one held last year.
This was followed by briefings from officials of each of the games who reeled out the rules of the games to the kids. Winding up with that, registration was called for, to allow all the contestants proceed to their different registration points where they were formally enrolled and handed with tags for proper identification.
With all contenders duly registered, the competition kicked-off in full swing in all the three areas of contest –the spelling bee, chess and scrabble. Interestingly, those for chess were locked in a duel in the 16 pieces board game as they racked their brains, sharpening their tactics to conquer while solving the chess positions.
Those for scrabble also were busy flexing with the tiles as they tried to make meaning out of meaningless words on the board staring them in the face. On the other hand, the spelling bee competitors turn by turn had to face the audience as they tried to spell words pronounced by the pronouncer.
A total of 86 children contested in the spelling bee, 46 partook in scrabble while 18 competed in chess. All the games were arranged in categories according to ages. The spelling bee competition had four categories where champions emerged from – the under 7; 7- 9; 10-12; and 13-14 age brackets. Chess had two categories of under 10 and under 14; while scrabble had junior and senior categories.
The Champions
All the three games produced champions in different categories. Master Perez Ekunke
who was once a champion in the Lagos State Chess Tournament clinched the gold medal in the under-14 chess competition while his younger brother, Goodness Ekunke who came to the show as the defending champion for the under 10, having won it last year, also carried the medal back to back.
In the spelling bee showdown, Miss Sonia Charles became the champion for age 13-14 category; Miss Olawale Ayoola took the champion for age 10-12 category; Master Nihinlola Olaore won in age 7-9 category; while Master Tofunmi Ajilore emerged champion for age 5-7. On scrabble, Master Ahmed Ajaoemerged the champion in the senior category while Miss Bolaji Nimota won in the junior category.
Apart from their medals, the champions were equally rewarded with gifts including cash prizes to encourage them for their excellent performance.
Partnership
The Cooperate Social Responsibility Coordinator of Total E&P Staff Cooperative Limited, Mrs Nneka Nwana, who represented the organisation at the event, expressed her satisfaction with the programme’s organisation.
Nwana stated that the cooperative chose REEL Foundation as its partner because of many great things they are doing in communities.
She said; “We understand that they provide e-learning resources for children that are living in the underserved communities. As such we thought that it would be a great idea to partner them to reach out to these children and see how we can impact on their lives.
“So that is why we selected REEL Foundation as part of our 2019 CSR Project. We decided to partner them to organise spelling bee competition and also to set up an e-learning hub for children living in the underserved communities. We have two e-learning hubs: one in Agbado and another one that is being set up in Ikorodu.
“We hope that the second one in Ikorodu will be launched next month, and it is also going to be a very grand opening. It is an e-learning hub that has been furnished with laptops, iPads, books, learning materials that would be made available for children living within that community, so that they can come to the e-learning hub, use these gadgets and gain some knowledge and add to their potentials.”
According to her, “going forward we hope to continue to work with them, seeing the good work that they have done in the various communities. We hope this will be a continuous relationship where we continue to support them, and we hope they will grow bigger and be in a position to perfect more lives and impact on more children.”
Excited Champs
Some of the kids who emerged champions at the competition took turns to express their joy. Miss Sonia Charles, who emerged champion of the age 13-14 category in spelling bee, said “It was like a shock to me because I was scared of the kind of words they were bringing. But I just tried my best and in the end I emerged champion.
“This spelling bee has given me the courage to believe in myself and believe that I can also be a winner. I wish to participate in other competitions in future to improve myself better. I want to thank REEL Foundation for organising this competition for us. I really appreciate them and I pray that God will continue to support them so that they will do better.”
The under 14 chess champion, Master Perez Ekunke, said:“I feel excited and I thank God for making me a winner. I will come back next year to take the position again.”
Ekunke who expressed his love for chess said the game helps to develop one’s brain. “It helps you to think fast. It helps me in Mathematics”, said Ekunke who also plans to become the first grandmaster in Nigeria, as there is no one in the country yet.
Also Ahmed Ajao, who also retained the medal he won last year in scrabble, senior category, equally justifies his love for scrabble game. “Scrabble has helped me improve on my mental capability. It makes me think fast at all time. I thank the organisers of this competition because if they did not hold it I would not have known that I have this talent”.
Insights
Meanwhile, some of the officials of the games who spoke to this reporter said the show was an impressive one, even as they gave more insights into the importance of each of the games.
The Chief Pronouncer at the spelling bee competition, Mr. Yinka Omoware, said: “It has been a nice and lovely experience coming here today to partake in the event. I was also impressed giving that I was serving as the pronouncer and the MC for the spelling bee.
“There were some words that I was not very sure that the children would be able to spell but they did and that made me know that this effort is worthwhile.”
He encouraged parents to impress on their children to take their vocabulary and dictionary very serious. “It is through this kind of competition that you know when a child is studying his or her dictionary well. Studying the dictionary and giving serious attention to words and their spellings.