Our Vision
Accepting that storytelling unlocks imagination which unlocks innovation, and that Ghanaian plights are resolved by Ghanaian people with Ghanaian solutions, we seek to provide literacy education in both the local language and English, stimulate appreciation through libraries of primarily African literature, and create a cultural revival wherein the world can hear the once-quiet voices of unsilenced narrative.
How do we do it?
Our plan is to start a literary center in a rural Ghanaian community where we can focus on literacy education. This will also be a space for oral artists and Ghanaian writers to share their passion and knowledge with the community. We intend to use this literary center to foster the creativity of those we seek to serve, and to teach them to express themselves through the healing power of literature — be that oral or written.
We strongly believe that the world is full of voices that, due to illiteracy or a global ignorance of their importance, are never heard. The world needs these voices and the innovative wisdom they may offer in order to answer the questions facing us in the future. No one should feel that their story is unimportant or irrelevant.
Joan Didion famously declared that “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.” This notion has profoundly influenced Untold International, which strives to give voice to those whose stories might have faded to silence without the resources and education they desperately need.
Additionally, and running parallel to the literacy center, we intend to help schools and communities in need through library reinforcement. Through talks with several educators, administrators, and others throughout Ghana, we have become aware of a staggering lack of resources for Ghanaian schools, particularly schools in rural areas. In many areas, it is not uncommon for classrooms to have only one copy of a text, and occasionally no copies at all. Operating under the belief that it is better for each student to have a copy of the texts they are studying, we seek to provide books for the English literature and local language programs to schools demonstrating a significant need, with a primary focus on senior high schools, which suffer to a greater extent from lack of government funding.
Let us be clear: The purpose of Untold International is primarily to provide resources to Ghanaians living in rural communities who are suffering from lack of access to adequate literacy education, through unbalanced student-teacher ratios, lack of materials, and low prioritization of education. We believe the stories already exist; we simply want to provide the keys to unlock them.
