Research, she indicated, suggested that there was a direct link between reading and success, hence, no matter the career path chosen, reading was crucial to the realisation of success.

Developing the reading skills of children is, therefore, a crucial issue that requires the attention of all stakeholders, Mrs Bawumia stressed.

Mrs Bawumia was speaking at a book distribution ceremony as part of activities to mark the 2018 World Book Day in Accra yesterday.

As part of the event, which was organised by the Rotary Club of Accra in collaboration with GEDAID Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, 6,000 books were distributed to 15 schools in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly.

Samira project

According to Mrs Bawumia, her desire was to contribute to raising the next generation of leaders or critical thinkers by supporting reading and writing initiatives at all levels of the country’s development.

She said the objectives of the Samira Empowerment and Humanitarian Projects (SEHP), a non-profit organisation that she founded, was to improve literacy, critical thinking and cultivate a culture of reading among pupils.

“Our library in a box project distributes books to deprived schools without libraries or understocked libraries across the nation,” she added.

She called on all stakeholders to help children to make the most available of books to increase the country’s literacy level and further help them to develop their dreams through reading and writing.

World Book Day

World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day, is an annual event marked on April 23 every year under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) .

The significance of the day is to promote reading, publishing and copyright and also to encourage stakeholders to invest in literacy while encouraging children in particular to imbibe the habit of reading.

This year’s celebration was held on the theme: “Making books accessible to all children.”

High Illiteracy

The Executive Director of GEDAID Foundation, Mr Emmanuel Asafo-Adjei, said a report released by the Ghana Education Service indicated that only 35 per cent of children in public basic schools could read.

He noted that the foundation aimed at making free books available to schoolchildren and added that so far, through partnerships, 12,000 books had been distributed to 33 primary schools since 2016.

The foundation, he stated, was seeking partnerships to meet its target of 100,000 books to deprived schools in five years.

The President of the Rotary Club, Mr Julian Segbawu, said the Rotary Club, as a humanitarian institution, was ready to provide any support at any level of national development.

He explained that the club drew its resource strength from its over one million members worldwide and, therefore, had the capacity to intervene when their support was needed.