UNITED Kingdom-based Dudzai Mureyi has struck gold after scooping first prize at the Kimathi Kuenyehia Foundation — MiLEAD Reading 2017 Competition which commenced last October.
BY LIFE & STYLE REPORTER
The annual reading challenge, held in collaboration with Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa, is open to the network of MiLEAD Fellows comprising over 240 exceptional young women leaders from 46 African countries and the diaspora.
Mureyi shrugged off competition from 16 fellows from 13 different countries, while Bagayana Sheillah Mutetire of Uganda came second and Grace Ineza of Rwanda took third price.
The three winners walked away with $1 000, $700 and $500 respectively.
The competitors had to read a book that inspires the tenets of outstanding leadership, dedicated service, professional and personal growth each week for 25 weeks starting in October last year and submit a weekly report.
The trio was selected based on consistency and timeliness of submission as well as relevancy of the books read.
“The myth that we are too busy to read needs to be debunked. It is only by deciding to embark on this challenge that I realised how much dead time I have throughout the day,” Mureyi, who is a pharmacist, health technology entrepreneur and PhD student, said in a statement.
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Kimathi Kuenyehia Foundation director Kimathi Kuenyehia said the competition was aimed at instilling a reading habit in young women leaders.
“We are delighted to be instilling in these young women leaders the habit of reading, which is critical to effective and enlightened leadership. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book reports every Monday and look forward to this year’s competition,” he said.
Moremi Initiative founder Mawuli Dake said 21st century African leaders must be well and widely read, adding: “The reading competition simply seeks to encourage good reading habits among our leaders. We believe that the 21st century African leader must be well and widely read.”
The reading challenge is an annual competition initiated by Kuenyehia in 2014 as a way of inculcating in the young women leaders of the MiLEAD Fellowship a lifelong love for reading and pursuit of knowledge.
