A French international school in East Legon in the Greater Accra Region, Lycée Français International Jacques Prévert d’Accra, has donated a number of school books in both English and French to the Founder of Nneka Youth Foundation, Mrs Cecilia Fiaka.
The Foundation runs outreach programmes for children and youth in Greater Accra, Volta, Oti and Western regions aimed ensuring that children from vulnerable communities stay in school to realise their full potential.
Additionally, it runs inspirational summer camps during school holidays, various youth development programmes like ‘Book Drive and Clubs’ across different schools in the aforementioned regions.
Presenting the reading materials, the Director of Finance and Administration of the school, Mohamed Sidibe, said the donation was part of plans by the school to help Nneka Foundation extend more support to Ghanaian children to develop a love for reading.
“The Lycée Français Internationale Accra is delighted to support the great work of Nneka Foundation. The focus of the donation is to help Ghanaian children travel the world through books,” he stressed.
More to come
He expressed the hope that this will be the first of many more interactions with them and other important local organisations in ensuring children from all communities have access to books and reading.
A member of the School Board, Giulia Tavolato, said it is the first of a series of interventions that the school would be making to support access to books and learning. The support, she noted, is in line with the national programme of Accra World Book Capital.
“The school is happy to support Ghana’s title this year given by the UNESCO following Ghana Book Development Council’s successful programme application,” she indicated.
The School Board member also stated that the school believed in investing in the minds of children for the future of the country and continent at large.
“Through books, you learn, you travel the world, you understand the world, and you become the global citizen. Our goal is that more and more Ghanaian children will develop the art of reading and a love for books,” she added.
Appreciation
For her part, the Founder of Nneka Youth Foundation, Cecilia Fiaka, expressed gratitude to the leadership of the school for the kind gesture.
“I’m so thankful and happy to have received these books as they will be of great use to the children we support, especially the French books. This is because some of the schools we support in terms of the learning of French lack quality teaching and learning materials to help the children academically,” she stated.
Mrs Fiaka said there was a lot more to be done and reiterated her appreciation to the leadership of the foundation for donating the books.
“Books are full of knowledge and you can travel anywhere in the world through books. You expand your thinking horizon and for that reason, we believe that making books available is the key thing and so this donation today is quite remarkable,” she said.
She further called on corporate bodies and other stakeholders to emulate the gesture so that the Ghanaian child within any part of the country would have access to books.
