Rotary Club presents six containers of books to two Ministries

Tema, Oct. 7, GNA- The Rotary Club of Tema, on Thursday presented six containers of library books worth one million dollars to the Ministries of Local Government and Rural Development and the Women and Children's Affairs, at a ceremony in Tema.

The Ministry of Local Government received four containers, whilst the Women and Children's Affairs received two containers.

The books are to be distributed to various Districts, Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies in the country.

Presenting the books, Mr Kwesi Kwakwa, President of the club said the club from the past 10 years, had been making similar donations to various institutions to improve literacy in the country.

He hoped the books would not be kept on shelves, but would be put to good use to eliminate illiteracy in the deprived communities. Mr Issa Ketekewu, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Developmen, and Mr Kofi Poku Adusei, Deputy Minster of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), received the items on behalf of their respective ministries.

Mr Ketekewu thanked the Club for the gesture, and promised that the books would be distributed to the various Assemblies to help promote education in the country.

Mr Adusei said his Ministry had the responsibility to protect and promote the welfare and development of women and children. He said MOWAC makes inputs into the work of other ministries, especially in Education for the development of the child.

Mr Adusei said the ministry, through its research, had observed that with the exception of the regional libraries, 'some of which are rather poorly resourced, there was an acute shortage of reading materials for school children, particularly those in the rural and deprived areas".

He said in view of this, the Ministry through its 'Leisure Box' program had been supplying children's books to deprived communities through the District Assemblies.

The Deputy Minister said 40 Leisure Boxes, each containing about 2,000 children's books and games, had been distributed to district assemblies in the Central Region, whilst 20 of such boxes had been distributed to the three Northern Regions.

Mr Adusei expressed his appreciation to the Rotary Club, and hoped the presentation would go a long way to enable the ministry to cover two additional regions. He, however, announced that the Ministry would establish children's centres with libraries in all the regional capitals next year.