Digital Story Launch & Awards Ceremony for Inspire Us Authors

West African authors change the conversation about gender through the power of stories.

Inspire Us Awards Ceremony & Launch
12th September 2019, 5:00 pm
Fiesta Royale Hotel,
13 Afari Djan Street, ECOMOG Avenue,
George W. Bush Hwy, Accra, Ghana

Accra, Ghana, 5 September 2019 – Worldreader’s Inspire Us project in Ghana, supported by Helen Gurley Brown’s Pussycat Foundation, is advancing West African authors and changing the conversation about gender norms through the power of stories, delivered via mobile phones. By addressing critical issues (like violence against women, family planning, and women’s autonomy) and providing positive literary role models – the Inspire Us collection of stories offers mixed-gender bookclubs a chance to interrogate these issues within the safe space of fiction. Inspire Us has the power to shape attitudes, which can then translate to a groundswell of positive actions, lifting women up to take their rightful place in society.

Worldreader, the global nonprofit organization that helps the world read, will host an awards celebration and release of a new collection of 30 digital stories that empower women. The event will honor the West African authors named finalists in the Inspire Us writing competition and launch book clubs – a vital aspect of the project, providing participants the opportunity to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and elevate the status of women and girls.

120 invited guests are expected to attend including these dignitaries: 

• Her Excellency Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur, former second lady of Ghana and Worldreader board chair
• Okyeame Kwame, musical artist, brand influencer and Worldreader board member
• Naa Korkor Aadzieoyi I, queen mother of Adabraka
• Doreen Andoh, project patron, positive role model, and leading Ghanaian radio personality

The event will celebrate these 10 finalists of the Inspire Us writing contest:

• Akua Serwaa Amankwah
• Udechukwu Promise
• Chukwudumebi Onoh
• Onis Sampson
• Ruby Goka (Multiple Burt Award winner)
• Sandy Om’Iniabohs Iguede
• Ifeoluwa Watson
• George Shaw
• Chijindu James-Ibe
• Adaeze Ibechukw
  

Her Excellency Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur, former second lady of Ghana and Worldreader board chair had this to say about the project: “The Inspire Us Award Ceremony will be an important milestone in the evolution of the project. Worldreader is pleased to have engaged with so many talented West African authors whose work comprises the 30 stories in the digital collection. These stories will encourage conversations about gender across the region, benefitting thousands of young women.”

About the Inspire Us Project

Raising the status of women and girls requires changing the conversation to inspire action. In partnership with Helen Gurley Brown’s Pussycat Foundation, Worldreader is changing the conversation in Ghana through the power of local stories delivered on mobile phones. 

“We are grateful to Helen Gurley Brown’s Pussycat Foundation for supporting the Inspire Us project,” says Ethel Sakitey, regional director, West Africa for Worldreader. “Through this partnership, we are able to support West African authors and bring empowering digital stories about women to readers.”

In December 2018, Worldreader began the Inspire Us project to create a digital collection of 30 stories featuring Ghanaian and West African women role models. The Inspire Us collection focuses on engaging young women between the ages of 15 and 24 and encouraging conversations around gender norms and gender stereotypes, with the goal of reaching 30,000 women readers across Ghana and West Africa. Inspire Us has the power to encourage reading among young women at a critical age.  The Inspire Us collection explores women’s challenges, provides empowered female characters as role models, and inspires conversations about gender norms and how to change them.

The Inspire Us collection will be available on Worldreader’s mobile app in September 2019. Worldreader has partnered with a number of local organizations and book clubs with the goal of facilitating conversations and engaging readers with the new collection. Worldreader has also partnered with a consultant from the Center for Gender Studies of the University of Ghana to provide a qualitative assessment of how the books were perceived by the target audience.

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About Worldreader

Worldreader is a global nonprofit whose mission is to help the world read through increased accessibility to digital books. The organization provides students and their families with a free digital library available on tablets, e-readers, and mobile phones, complemented by a suite of reading support programs. Since 2010, more than 13 million people across 50 countries have read from the Worldreader digital library of thousands of local and international digital books. Worldreader works with device manufacturers, local and international publishers, government agencies, education officials, and local communities to help readers worldwide.

WORLDREADER MEDIA CONTACTS