Textbooks for Ghana Project

On December 30, 2013, Lynn Rotary President Obie Barker and a group of students from the Lynn Boys & Girls Club Torch program, delivered over 200 cases of books to the Rotary Club of Jamestown, Rhode Island, to be shipped to schools in Ghana. The project, called the Ghana Literacy Project, collects books for schools in Ghana which do not have the resources necessary to educate their children. President Obie’s participation in the project came as a result of a letter sent to him from the Jamestown RI Club asking for help and stating:

“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.”

Part of Lynn Rotary’s involvement in this project was to work with a local resident, Dorothy Wright-Irwin, who collected almost 200 cases of books for the project, but who needed help in delivering them to Rhode Island. Additionally, a donation of several cases of books was made by St. Mary’s High School in Lynn. President Obie helped make arrangements for the transportation of such a large number of books by securing a few trucks and by getting the assistance of ten young people to help load the trucks.

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.”

Mrs. Wright-Irwin’s request for help was fulfilled thanks to Lynn Rotary President Obie and the volunteers from the Lynn Boys & Girls Club Torch program. The books were delivered to Rhode Island and will be sent to Ghana along with book collections of other Rotary clubs cooperating with Jamestown. Ongoing cooperation between the Lynn Rotary Club and the Jamestown RI Club will be in the form of regular book collections for the Ghana schools and delivery of them to Rhode Island.

The crew moving books