GEMSTONE GLOBAL READING FESTIVAL 2012
AFRICA’S BIGGEST ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE CAMPAIGN
INTRODUCTION
It is with great pleasure that we present to you, “GEMSTONE GLOBAL READING FESTIVAL (GGRF), the maiden edition of the largest-ever book reading attempt, globally aimed at promoting academic excellence, youth leadership and world peace.
The GGRF is the highlight of our employee volunteering scheme(EVS) project. The EVS is a mentoring platform that connects exemplary professionals from all works of life with secondary school students, to enable these professionals share their life’s stories and success secrets and most importantly inspire the students to appreciate the importance of academic excellence to living their dreams and attaining success in life.
The volunteer professionals will use the book “17 Secrets of High Flying Students” as the tool for connecting with the students and sharing their success principles.
Over a period of the reading festival each volunteer will go to one or more schools between 7:30am-8:30am and read a chapter of the “17 Secrets of High Flying Students” to the students and then proceed to share how the nuggets and principles in each chapter has helped them to achieve academic success and ultimately career success.
The students will have the opportunity to ask questions but will most importantly be able to catch a vision (a picture of their future) that naturally inspires them to strive for academic excellence.
AIM
The main objective of the Gemstone Reading Festival is to ensure that greater efforts are taken towards improving literacy and the reading culture in the world especially amongst the children and youths, by involving the entire community to join in the campaign to raise exceptional leaders and change agents that would bring about national transformation in their respective countries, as well as being peace ambassadors across the globe.
OBJECTIVES
- Promote Academic excellence
- Improve the literacy level in the country
- Drive and instill the reading culture in Nigerian students
- Teach the Principles of Success
- Raise Youth Leaders
- Sharpen students’ reading and listening skills
- Provide a yearly platform for stakeholders of the industry to get involved in developing educational sector in the country.
THE HISTORY- MAKING FLAG OFF EVENTS…..Setting a new Guinness World Record
On November 24, 2012, history would be made as the GEMSTONE GROUP launches the first-ever simultaneous global reading of a book – “17 Secrets of High Flying Students” in 17 cities in Nigeria and 17 countries across the world at the same moment in time (via live streaming).
The reading would be done simultaneously, taking into account, the different time zones of each reading centre. Therefore, while the reading takes place in Nigeria by 12 noon, other locations like Ghana would be 11am, South Africa at 1pm, Malaysia at 7pm, Maryland (USA) at 7am, etc.
SCOPE
We expect to register and host over 50,000 secondary schools(high school) students in 17 cities across Nigeria and 17 countries across the world. The Nigerian cities include: Lagos, Abeokuta, Calabar, Ilorin, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt, Ife, Abuja, Benin, Jos, Ado-Ekiti, Uyo, Enugu, Kaduna, Minna, Owerri and Asaba.
Furthermore, we are also establishing reading centres in 17 countries including: Malaysia, Ghana, South Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Seychelles, Dubai, Australia, India and Canada.
By all indications, the number of locations would increase as several individuals from other countries have shown interest in establishing reading centres for this historic event.
CELEBRITY READERS & SPECIAL GUESTS
Each reading centre will host a celebrated or renowned personality as a LEAD READER. This enhances the media profile and the excitement factor for the students and the project at large.
Confirmed Lead Readers include; the First Lady of the Lagos State – H.E. Dame Emanuella Abimbola Fashola, The First Lady of Kwara State – H.E. Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed and a host of others.
We have also received strong expression of interest from the office of the First Lady of Cross River State even as we expect to receive positive confirmations from the offices of the First Ladies of Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers and Imo states.
PARTICIPATION
Participation in this festival is open to all categories ranging from;
- Primary and Secondary Schools
- Young professionals and entrepreneurs
- Parents
- Celebrities
- Teachers
- Alumni’s
- School Associations
- Ministries and Government Parastatals
- Corporate Organizations
- Higher Institutions
THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT
The GEMSTONE GLOBAL READING FESTIVAL 2012 will flag-off with a Guinness World Record Attempt.
We expect to set new world records in the following categories:
- THE MOST NUMBER OF CHILDREN BEING READ TO BY AN ADULT (Currently 4,222 people)
- THE LARGEST BOOK READING EVENT BY AN AUTHOR (Currently 5,406 people)
- THE LARGEST GLOBAL READING LESSON IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES SIMULTANEOUSLY (New Category).
THE GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EVENT
After setting the world record attempt, we intend to use this historic platform as an opportunity for a call for World Peace. This would culminate in the ringing of the “PEACE BELL” at 12:00noon GMT simultaneously across all our reading centres.
Furthermore, we intend to mobilize and inspire 1million people across the world to join us from their homes, offices, etc in ringing the “PEACE BELL”.
Recently, on Friday September 21, 2012, the United Nations marked the International Day of peace by ringing a Peace Bell at the botanical park of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA.
We expect that this historic act of the ringing of the Peace Bell simultaneously across the world would also be recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the Largest Campaign for World Peace.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The “17 Secrets of High Flying Students” is an inspirational book that shares 17 Leadership Secrets and Principles that guarantee Leadership and Academic Excellence. The book is a treasure chest of Leadership Secrets presented in captivating life–changing stories along with nuggets and principles that have the capacity to transform average students and outright failures into high flying students and highly successful individuals.
The book has been proven to be a viable leadership tool which has helped students to achieve academic excellence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Fela Durotoye (Visionary and Youth Peace Ambassador)
Mr. Fela Durotoye is a renowned expert in the areas of leadership development and national transformation. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the GEMSTONE GROUP comprising the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation and the GEMSTONE Development and Management Company.
He is a renowned and internationally acclaimed Transformational Speaker, often referred to as Nigeria’s Foremost Motivational Speaker with a large following on social media platforms (over 166,000 face book fans). In 2011, Fela Durotoye was recognized and awarded by the World Youth Federation for Peace as a UNITED NATIONS YOUNG AMBASSADOR FOR PEACE.
In 2009, Fela Durotoye inspired the Largest Urban Renewal Project – the historic Mushin Make–Over with over 2000 volunteers painting 296 houses in one day along with 3 kilometers of road median and bus stops. The project received global media coverage and international acclaim.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION: GEMSTONE GROUP
The GEMSTONE GROUP comprising of (GEMSTONE Development and Management Company & GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation) is a social enterprise that focuses on raising exemplary leaders of excellence, at all stages who would be committed to building desirable societies. We work to build people into super-achievers and responsible leaders, build corporate organizations into global market leaders and responsible corporate citizens, as well as assist governments in developing blue prints and programs to create an environment for their people to do great things.
Over the years, GEMSTONE GROUP has gained expertise in the field of consulting, training, leadership development and project management.
For more enquiries, please call 070886344477, 08099392281 or send a mail to rotimieyitayo@gemstoneng.com
