3FM’s mid morning host, Miriam Osei Agyemang, says books are still prohibitively expensive for the economically struggling poor communities in Ghana. She observed “the door to economic prosperity remains closed for many children in the rural areas and knowledge will be the key to that door”.
Miriam made the observation while speaking at Manya Jorpanya D/A Basic School in the Eastern Region at the commencement of a community project aimed at providing library services to pupils in rural areas and the urban poor.
The host of Urban blend on 3FM92.7 and co-founder of ReadBook Lib. Ghana, Miriam said it is essential that they have access to the right learning materials. ReadBook Ghana is a non-governmental organization seeking to provide children in urban poor and in the rural areas access to useful reading materials, to rekindle their love for reading, bridging the gap to access to information and to create a conducive learning environment for children.
The organization hopes to build a total of 20 libraries in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions in 2017 Mr. Isaac Asare, a Volunteer of the organization, said the task is huge but attainable; he called on publishers, authors and the public to donate useful books and stationary to support the course. The traditional chief of Manya Jorpanya, Nene Tei Djanhene Korabo IV, commended ReadBook Lib.
Ghana for bringing books to the doorstep of the community through the establishment of a community library project. He pledge his support to the organization and promised to make land and labour available during the construction of the library. Miriam hinted that in order to scale up the program throughout Ghana, her outfit will soon launch a television series dubbed, The ReadBook Challenge to further promote the culture of reading among children.