Imagine growing up and only reading stories that have absolutely nothing to do with your reality.

The way the houses are. How the people look. The customs, the food, the traditions. The climate.

Most children in Africa don’t have access to books that tell stories they can relate to.

African children, if they have access to books at all, read about culture and life in the West, where the majority of the books come from.

Deborah, Co-Founder and CEO of the Golden Baobab Prize in Accra Ghana, was determined to change that.

The Golden Baobab Prize is a literary award that addresses the issue of insufficient quality children’s books in Africa by discovering, nurturing and celebrating promising writers of African children’s literature. They are driven to their work by various factors. One of these is the grim statistic about children’s literature in Africa. UNESCO’s basic principle, “full and equal opportunities in education for all,” remains unattained.

Deborah dreams of seeing a world filled with wonder and possibilities, one African children’s story at a time.

On this episode, I wanted to bring you guys a little bit behind the scenes on what happens on TIE and help you see how powerful it is to bring together skills from the social and private sectors.

Here I’m chatting with Deborah, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Golden Baobab Prize and Cameron, from the & partnership in New York, who is working with them on our TIE Advisor program, to help them navigate this difficult and uncertain moment, all the while getting leadership experience and exercising a different skill set.

I also thought that it was a good opportunity for us to check in with Ghana and see how things are evolving on the COVID front. So I thought you guys would find that quite interesting as well.

So grab your favorite beverage, have a listen, and please do let us know what you think!