Ghana Book Project
Lynn Rotary joins in the Ghana Book Project
The Board of Directors for Lynn Rotary has voted to endorse Lynn’s participation in an international project in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Jamestown, Rhode Island. The project is called the Ghana Literacy Project and collects books for schools in Ghana which do not have the resources necessary to educate their children. Details of our involvement will be forthcoming but it will involve collecting books and helping a local resident move a large number of books to Rhode Island, for shipment to Ghana. The letter sent to President Obie described their project as follows:“Imagine taking university courses without the benefit of a textbook. Students at the University of Ghana, indeed at most universities in West Africa, do exactly this -- no textbook for any course. Now imagine what you can do about this. Simply take our used textbooks, (they don't have to be the current edition), and donate them to this project: we will collect, sort and package these for containerized shipment to Ghana each year. The container leaves Providence in May. In addition to textbooks for the University. children's books and culturally appropriate books for adults are also being collected for village libraries and schools and for orphans and vulnerable children.
The Rotary Club of Accra Airport is coordinating the receipt and delivery of books in Ghana to the Balme Library at the University of Ghana. where the books will be loaned to students for the duration of their course. All books will be re-loaned to new students even year so that your donation will serve students for years to come. Non-text children's books and adult books will be directed to Matthew 25 House, a refuge for people infected with HIV. a library in Pokuase Village and other schools and organizations in Ghana.”
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Part of Lynn Rotary’s involvement in this project is to work with a local resident, Dorothy Wright-Irwin, who has collected a large number of books for the project, but who needs help in delivering them to Rhode Island. Lynn Rotarians will help make arrangements for the transportation of such a large number of books. In her letter to President Obie, Ms. Wright-Irwin described how she came to be involved with a school in Ghana, and the scope of their need. In part she wrote:“I visited The Hilltop School, a village school just outside the town of Kumasi. As it so happened, one gentleman from the community, who owned a sawmill, had recently donated his time and materials to build the school a library. The library consisted of one large room with shelves from floor to ceiling, and a smaller room with round tables and chairs and also with shelves around the perimeter. Most of the shelves were empty because all the books that they had filled only a small portion of the space provided.
I was taken to meet the Director and Assistant Directors of the school. I presented them with the books I had brought. They both cried, with joy, that their prayers were being answered, first the library and now with books. In reality, the donation I brought was a drop in the bucket for what they needed, but they were so grateful.
I was brought to meet the children to explain about the books, their eyes lit up and sparkled and some asked if they could bring them home so their parents could see and hear them read. Now it was my turn for tears. The teacher explained that they could, but they would be responsible for taking care of the books overnight, but they would have to return them the following day, so other children could borrow them as well.”
The Lynn Rotary Board felt that our club could make a good contribution to this worthy project and that we would be able to provide the resources needed to move the books from Lynn. We will be looking to use several trucks needed to move the books and volunteers in loading and unloading them. We will also be looking for members to bring in whatever book donations that they can over the coming months.