The Pan African Scrabble Association has named the maiden edition of the African Youth Scrabble Championship after High Chief Winifred Awosika, the founder of the Winifred Awosika Foundation, for her efforts in developing scrabble in Nigerian schools.
The championship is scheduled to take place from August 24 to 28 at Chrisland School, Lekki, Lagos.
Awosika has organised scrabble tournaments for private and public schools since 2011, which has helped to improve vocabulary, math, logic and reasoning in students.
Speaking during the competition’s trophy tour of Lagos on Tuesday, Awosika thanked the organisers for the honour, noting that scrabble helps to enhance learning.
She disclosed this at the trophy tour of the African Youth Championship held in Lagos on Tuesday, May 16.
Awosika stated, “I’m grateful to the organisers of scrabble competitions in Nigeria. I organise scrabble competitions between private and public schools because I want to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. I thank the organisers for counting me worthy to be given this honour to name the African Youth Scrabble Championship in my name. I am very grateful for this wonderful honour.
“Scrabble is a very simple game, you just sit down and watch the children, at first I did not understand, but God just gave me power to support and make scrabble popular in our schools and we are doing it. This is service to God and to humanity.”
President, PANASA, Adekoyejo Adegbesan, said about 150 youths from 23 English-speaking African countries would participate at the championship scheduled to hold from August 24 to 28 in Lagos.
“It’s the first of its kind, and we are expecting fun fair scrabble, it’s an English scrabble tournament,” Adegbesan told The PUNCH.
“We have to limit the participation to 10 participants per country because there are a lot of countries that want more kids to participate.
“The tournament is in Mrs Awosika’s name and her foundation is a title sponsor because of what she has done for junior scrabble on the continent.”
