World Book Day

“Across the world, there are 387 million children of primary school age who do not achieve minimum skill levels in reading, even through they are in school.[1]”

That is why, in October 2018 we opened the doors to our new community library at our Pre and Primary school in Ayensuako, Ghana. It is our hope that in creating opportunities for not just our students, but for the whole community to develop reading skills, we can promote learning at home and offer sustainable approaches to lowering statistics such as this.

Every day our teachers and library staff work with both the students and the local community to ensure everyone has access to the library, which currently houses over 2,000 books.  Thanks to the amazing work of Book Aid International who donated these books, our library is filled with brand new titles which have been chosen to meet the needs of the local community.

Read on to see the difference our library has made so far….

Mr Hayford Ahrin, School librarian

“My name is Mr Hayford Ahrin and I was recently appointed as the librarian in the new school at the Humanitas Pre and Primary school. I have worked at the school previously in the capacity of learning assistant.  When the books arrived at the school, I was responsible for organising them into the new library system. I am responsible for managing the lending of books to both the students and the community. I also run reading programmes with the students at the school in their classes and organise reading classes for community members outside of school hours.

These books have completely changed my life. As the librarian I have learnt many new skills. I also greatly enjoy teaching both the students and community members to read so that they can really appreciate the books and learn from them.  It is my pleasure every day to see the joy on the children’s faces when they pick up the books.

We would not have the opportunities at the school which we do now. My own daughter is a student and being able to read with her at home after school with the books she borrows means she is constantly learning. The books are really a gift of education which will stay with the community of Ayensuako forever“.

[1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/09/more-than-half-of-children-and-youth-worldwide-not-learning-unesco/