The Rebecca Foundation has begun construction of a library in Kwahu Bepong in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region as part of its Learning to Read Reading to Learn initiative.
The initiative seeks to inculcate the habit of reading among school children by providing them with the right ambience, adequate, interesting and relevant reading materials to enrich their knowledge. The Rebecca Foundation in concert with other organisations is constructing ten (10) libraries across the country, having completed four so far.
The Kwahu Bepong Library project is a collaborative endeavour with the ASR Africa initiative, to construct eight library facilities in various communities across the country, bringing the total number of Libraries to be constructed by the Rebecca Foundation, to eighteen.
ASR Africa is an initiative of Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist Abdul Samad Rabiu, to give back to the African continent through the promotion of sustainable healthcare, education and social development.
It will be recalled that in June last year (2021), the Rebecca Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) for a grant of $500,000 to support the Foundation’s education initiatives. The grant was offered by ASR Africa following what it described as the Rebecca Foundation’s commitment to the welfare of women and children in the country and its adherence to good corporate governance and practices which have enabled the foundation to deliver infrastructure and services in the areas of education, health and women’s economic empowerment.
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Cutting the sod for the Kwahu Bepong facility on behalf of the First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo who is also the Executive Director of the Rebecca Foundation, Director of Operations at the Office of the First Lady, Mrs. Akosua Newman said since its inception in 2017 the Foundation has been undertaking several programmes and infrastructural projects under its Learning to Read Reading to Learn initiative, to support government achieve the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
She said the First Lady believes strongly that one sure way to improve access to and quality of education among children to enable them discover their full potential and prepare them for global market competition, is to empower them with knowledge, which can largely be acquired by reading broadly.
To this end, she said the Rebecca Foundation has also constructed primary schools and donated books to several school libraries across the country, as well as run a children’s reading programme on national television: “Learning to read Reading to Learn”; all aimed at encouraging reading among children as an avenue to knowledge acquisition.
Mrs. Newman extended the Rebecca Foundation’s profound gratitude to the Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu (ASR) Africa initiative for supporting the Foundation to put up the Library facility and stock it with rich reading materials, and urged politicians, traditional leaders and elders in the area to encourage their wards to patronise the library to acquire knowledge, when completed.
She also thanked the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kwahu South, Hon. Emmanuel Atta Ofori, and MP for Mpraeso, Hon. Davis Ansah Opoku for their assistance in ensuring speedy take-off of the project.Present to grace the brief ceremony were the DCE of Kwahu South, Hon. Emmanuel Atta Ofori, Director General of the Ghana Library Authority Mr. Hayford Siaw, senior Dignitaries of ASR Africa, Traditional Leaders and Heads and students of beneficiary schools.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com
