A United Nations foundation and South Korea on Tuesday donated 5,000 assorted books and furniture to the Nima Cluster of Schools Library to facilitate teaching and learning.
Ms Dho Young-Shim, Ambassador of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation�s Sustainable Tourism Eliminating Poverty (UNWTO ST-EP) and a
South Korean delegation presented the books, which included arts and science, to the school.
The donation was part of the inauguration of the two storey library building for the 20th Nima �Thank You Small Library� (TYSL) project in
Accra.
Ms Young-Shim said UNWTO STE-EP was a foundation which initiated TYSL to support communities in developing countries.
She explained that the TYSL model was based on the Korean experience of �Development through Education� aimed at achieving objectives of the UN�s Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Ms Young-Shim said students were future leaders and had to be assisted with the needed support to advance their aspirations hence the need for the organisation to support the library project.
She said the facilities in the library would help alleviate some of the pertinent problems faced by students in the Nima Community with respect to books.
She urged them to make good use of the library by reading to improve their knowledge and enhance their education.
Mrs Saba Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Tourism, said the Ministry was committed to providing library facilities in schools since �library is the heart, brain and memory of society�.
She said the library was the 20th in Ghana and 75th in Africa and Ghana had the largest number of libraries under the TYSL programme worldwide.
Mrs Okaikoi thanked STE-EP Foundation for its support and appealed forthe establishment of more of such libraries in the rural communities.
Mr Mustapha Ahmed, Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, said the idea to build a library for the Nima Community was initiated by the Citizen�s Social Club of Nima with support from Nima Association of New York (NANY) made up of US-based Nima citizens.
He said an initial amount of 16,500 dollars was provided by NANY towards the project and contributed through his share of GETFUND allocation to Parliamentarians for interventions in education.
�About GH�36,000 from GETFUND has been spent on the project and I have pre-financed the project to the tune of about GH�15,000 to it going,� he added.
Mr Mustapha denied allegations that government was determined to take over the project and said there was effective collaboration between stakeholders in the library project.
He urged users of the library to take good care of the books and furniture to benefit future generations.