Two NGOs, Deloitte and Spring-up Global Network have provided the Hohoe East Cluster of Schools in the Volta Region with a well-stocked library facility.

The facility which would impact over 3,000 learners is the 7th under Deloitte’s WorldClass Initiative, aimed at enhancing literacy among the Ghanaian populace and empowering about 20 million people by 2030.

The Executive Director of Spring-up Global Network, Akorfa Ama Akoto said the initiative has already impacted the expected learners in the first year.

“The commissioning of today’s library increases our impact to 19,925 learners. This means that more children are benefiting from the initiative than the initial target of 16,000 for all eight libraries in the first year”, she explained.

She added that the facility is a 50-seater capacity library stocked with 1061 books, mainly African-authored, on topics such as literature, personal development, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Miss Akoto said it is also designed with a reading floor for learners in the early grades, to always benefit from this great initiative.

She further indicated that some 3,133 learners from the seven schools would be directly impacted by the provision of the library.

The schools are the Gbi Central R/C Boys JHS, Gbi Central R/C Boys KG/Primary, St. Teresa’s Girls Demonstration R.C. JHS, St. Teresa’s Girls Demonstration R.C. KG/Primary, St. Francis Demonstration R.C JHS A - 340, St. Francis Demonstration R.C. JHS "B" School and St. Francis Demonstration R.C. Primary.

“As an NGO working in the education sector, we believe that making libraries available and accessible to children is a key step to improving literacy and supporting local and global efforts in bridging learning poverty in schools.

"Because of the school library being inaugurated today, I am confident that the children will develop a good reading culture which will translate into better learning outcomes”, she concluded.

The West African Chief Sustainability Officer of Deloitte, Abena Biney said her organisation sets out to contribute to bridging the rural-urban literacy gap.

She added that the initiative would ensure the learners are provided with opportunities to broaden their horizons in their immediate jurisdiction.

“You can see we donated books, we have refurbished the structure, giving them a safe place so that they can read, they can learn, they can discover new things without moving out from here, but they become knowledgeable about new things.

The Volta Regional Director of Education, Francis Agbemadi lauded the initiative and emphasized the critical need for learners to acquire the habit of reading.

“If you do not acquire reading habits, you cannot acquire modern-day skills like critical thinking, digital skills, and other skills and so this library is going to enable our students to achieve this aim”, he said.