Ghana’s Second Lady Samira Bawumia has through the Samira Empowerment Humanitarian Project, (SEHP), donated over 200,000 books to 64 basic schools across the country since its inception.
Over 400,000 pupils are also expected to benefit from this project.
Mrs. Bawumia who was speaking at the refurbishment and retooling of the modern library at the Kanda cluster of schools indicated that the project is aimed at inculcating a culture of reading among pupils in the country.
“Today is an exciting day for me as an advocate of reading since I am gradually on course to empower the next generation of critical thinkers. It is for this reason that my not-for-profit organisation as part of promoting the culture of reading has embarked on retooling and refurbishment of the library at the Kanda cluster of schools, and we have donated over 200,000 books across the country to over 64 basic schools.
“It is expected that over 400,000 pupils will benefit from reading the books”, the Second Lady pledged.
She promised that the Samira Empowerment Humanitarian Project will continue to push the agenda of reading culture among students in the country adding that the project is aimed at bringing reading to the doorstep of students.
The SEHP project has a capacity for over 60 pupils with an ICT hub and five computers aimed at blending the reading with information technology.
“I hope that this centre will be a source of inspiration and curiosity for pupils and encourage them to read”, Samira Bawumia added.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Library Authority, Hayford Siaw, indicated that the authority will support the project to ensure it is successful.
He noted that the project has in a way supported the number of libraries in the country.
Mr. Siaw added that since taking over, the number of public libraries has increased from 61 to 105 within six years of office whilst the number of books on the shelves across the country has also increased from 300,000 to 1.3 million.
“We have managed to increase the number of public libraries from 61 to 105 while the number of books on the shelves of public libraries which was only 300, 000 has increased to 1.3 million”, Mr. Siaw pointed out.
He urged pupils of the cluster to continue to support the project by patronising the library in the form of reading.
“As Ghana Library Authority will support the project by monitoring to ensure that the project is kept in good shape but as children you are fortunate since you didn’t benefit from the books in a box project but a whole library which is an indication of the second lady’s commitment towards your school. What you can do as children is to support her by reading the books,” Mr. Siaw said.
