My name is Timothy Nsobila. I am 13 years old and yesterday was my birthday.

I live with my father and my mother and my two sisters. My mother is a weaver and my father is a mason.

Gowrie, where I live in Ghana is a small community, it is not crowded. Gowrie is so beautiful and that’s why I love Gowrie.

I want to be a soldier when I grow up. Because I want to protect my country.

At school, my favourite subject is Maths, Science and English. They are my favourites because I understand the lesson more than the other subjects.

The best thing about going to school is they are some people that went to school and now you can see they are big people in life. So I want to go to school and be a big person like them.

The worst thing is when you are going to school with an empty stomach or with bare feet. That’s when I don’t like going to school.

There are 18 children in my class. During the pandemic, we couldn’t come to school but they organised the classes for us. The classes started at around 8.30 to 9.30 so our teacher couldn’t teach all the subjects.

Coming to school will help me in my future. You can see all these people, they go to school and now they are sitting in their office and they are controlling things. That’s why I want to go to school.

We have textbooks and storybooks at school. The books let me feel happy. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is my favourite. Having books in school helps us. When our teachers are not around, we can go and take the books and come and read and understand.

All Images © Book Aid International/ Natalija Gormalova