Empowering the Youth

TITLE: EMPOWERING THE YOUTH THROUGH EDUCATION.
                                                  BY:
                                                James Kofi Annan
                                                      President
                                              Challenging Heights
Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce had one thing in common. Both played heroic roles in the abolition of slavery.   Wilberforce was a leading Member of Parliament in the Abolitionist Society in Britain, whilst Lincoln, through his Emancipation Declaration freed a large number of African slaves in the United States.
In Ghana, a 38 year old philanthropist, bubbling with youthful exuberance, and having gone through harsh conditions to get himself educated has established Challenging Height, a Child Rights Advocacy Organization aimed at helping needy people /students to achieve their objectives in life to enable them contribute to national development.
Sold by his father into slavery at the age of 7, James Kofi Annan for 6 years moved from one fishing village to the other and worked under very harsh conditions. At 13, he escaped and went back to his parents at Winneba.
He enrolled as a Primary Six pupil but could neither read nor write. His friendship with little children at home enabled him to borrow books from them. He then taught himself how to read and write.   To support himself at school, he was forced to go back to fishing and farming. This could be described as frantic but determined efforts by one who wanted to get water from a solid rock or stone. Young Annan did not want to be a Moses who saw the land of Canaan but could not set foot there.
By dint of hard work, he surmounted the initial difficulties, got 9As in the BEECE and gained admission into Winneba Secondary School where he did not allow his poor background to impede his academic progress. He was offered admission to read Psychology at University of Ghana, Legon.
His resilience in attempts aimed...