Summer 2025 Fundraising Campaign
Literacy for Liberation: The Ken Saro-Wiwa Literacy Crusade
Help us raise £12,000 to make a lasting difference to the education of children in Ogoniland, Niger Delta
Only 26% of Nigerian children aged 7–14 have basic reading skills, and 67.5% live in poverty (UNICEF, 2024).
In Ogoniland, life is much tougher.
Ogoniland, in Rivers State, southern Nigeria covers around 1,000 square kilometres in the Niger Delta region, making it the third largest mangrove ecosystem in the world. The Ogoni people, population est. 800,000 - 2 million, have a distinct ethnic identity and rich cultural history.
Decades of oil pollution have destroyed livelihoods and deepened inequality in Ogoniland.
Low literacy levels perpetuate inequality and poverty, especially in such marginalized communities, cutting off access to opportunity and trapping generations in deprivation.
Help us to bridge this gap. It’s essential to restoring dignity and breaking the cycle.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
And the Ogoni Nine
Our project honours the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer, environmental activist, and human rights campaigner, best known for leading the nonviolent struggle of the Ogoni people against environmental degradation, caused by oil exploitation.
Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine were wrongfully hanged 30 years ago this year.
Ken Saro-Wiwa saw literacy as a weapon against injustice—not in the form of violence, but in the form of knowledge, expression, and agency. For him, a literate people were a free people—capable of shaping their own future.
To commemorate their struggle and to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Safe Child Africa in 2025, we are launching a literacy crusade.
The legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa
We will write and publish and distribute 40,000 copies of ‘decodable readers’ - reading books that can easily be understood by early grade readers - using Jolly Phonics methods. The booke are based on key moments in the life of Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Stories of the Ogoni people, for the Ogoni people.
Teacher Training
We will provide intensive training for all ‘Primary 1’ teachers - about 300 teachers - delivered by certified Jolly Phonics trainers
We will distribute Teacher Guides, Pupil Books, flashcards, wall charts and support teachers with follow up coaching
The Literacy Crusade
We will organise and run a 2-day event with street processions, public reading sessions, book distribution points and mobile learning activities, to raise awareness on literacy, peace, and the legacy of the Ogoni 9.
The whole community will be involved and excited about how learning can create a better future.
Please help us raise £12,000 to make this Literacy Crusade a reality
We are hoping to raise £12,000 before November 2025, so that we can launch the Literacy Crusade on Ken Saro-Wiwa day, 10 November 2025.
“Education is the key to self-liberation. If my people cannot read or write, they will never understand the chains that bind them.”
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“Education is the key to self-liberation. If my people cannot read or write, they will never understand the chains that bind them.” *
— Paraphrased from Ken Saro-Wiwa’s public addresses
