Month: August 2021

From Paul:

On the 23rd of July, the extended reading room of the Sumbrungu community library was inaugurated. We initially planned to have a brief ceremony but we ended up spending more time than expected because the invited guests, head teachers and teachers, library users who were present, reps of the Sumbrungu Youth and Development Association (SUYDA) among others were all happy that an additional library room has been added to the existing one and all of them wanted to say a word. They were all thankful to Mr. Rex and the donors and all those who supported him in putting up the structure. Mr. Rex addressing the gathering, thanked them all for coming to grace the occasion. He said idea of an additional library room was to address the limited capacity of the current library hall to contain the increase number of library users, it was to also enable the library users to observe the COVID 19 social distancing protocol measures. He called on the government to support communities and schools with libraries in a bid to improve and promote the reading culture in children. This he believes will improve the performance of children education especially at the basic levels. The rep of the Upper East Municipal Education Director, Mr. Frederick Ayine who spoke on behalf of the director commended CESRUD for contributing a lot in improving reading abilities of children in the Sumbrungu, Sherigu and Gowrie-Kunkua areas and by extension Ghana as a whole. He called on everyone to support the education of children especially in the rural communities. He assured CESRUD that he was going to carry the good message back to the director and whatever support they can offer, they will do it.

The rep of SUYDA was thankful to CESRUD for a great work done and also assured that he will get the message back to the youth group and whatever the feedback is, they will let us hear it. Chairman of the Bolga West B and North Circuit association was very happy that their students and pupils has gotten an additional reading room. He said CESRUD over the years has contributed tremendously to the education of children through the community libraries and school libraries. He mentioned that teachers has benefit tremendously through some upgrading training programs on child development among others from CESRUD. He encouraged his colleague teachers to also play their part by supporting children to read. It was a beautiful ceremony we had on that day. On behalf of the librarians, our cherished library users, I want to extend our sincere appreciation to first the executive director of CESRUD, the Amsterdam-Bolgatanga Foundation and our main donor FAVL for the supporting CESRUD to finish this great project. God richly bless and replenished you with all the resources you supported us with. We also extend our appreciation to Biblionef Ghana for supporting our schools and Sumbrungu Community Library.

Paul’s account of reading a book in the Sumbrungu library (apologies for typos):

I read a book with the patrons in group titled; Anansi Starts a Library by Eleanor C. Trimble. A very interesting story book, after I finished reading the story with patrons, some borrowed the books home to read on their own. A brief about this story; Anansi was a lazy man who did not like being reminded of his laziness, he was about to take a nap under a coconut tree by the sea after ignoring a thought he had earlier about going to dig some yams. Sister Turkey came around and woke Anansi up with some rumour-talks after which she left. Anansi was very angry about being woken up with the rumour talks from Sister Turkey with ‘I hear tell, or somebody told me or I read signs in the sky’. This rumour-talks was what upsets Anansi who intend sought answers from Mr. Owl who was considered as a wise person as to what to do to stop sister Turkey from spreading lies all the time. Anansi believes people should spread facts rather than rumours. And so wise Mr. Owl told Anansi that the only way to stop nonsense is to put sense in people’s heads. Anansi asked how that was going to be done. Mr. Owl told Anansi that there is a lot of sense in a good book, start spreading different kinds of books to the folks to read and soon they will know better than to let sister Turkey rumour scare them. Instead of sitting down and thinking up ways not to work, why don’t you gather books of all kinds of subjects and put them in a library and tell the folks they can borrowed them to read. Wise Mr. Owl assisted Anansi with all the assistance that he will need to convince the other forest animals to support him set up the library. After lots of hard work, the library was fully set up, sooner than later people have to queue in order to get a book and read at the Anansi library. As time went on all the initial system that were put in place for management of the library were properly improved upon. There were no time again to spare for rumour-talks that upsets people.

Attendance to the three community libraries for the month of July were good and encouraging. At the Sumbrungu Community Library, patronage to the library were very great. Frequent users to the library during the day time periods were pupils and students from the surroundings basic schools such as St. Charles Lwanga Primary and Junior High, Kulbia Primary school and Kolgo Junior High School among others. The night time periods were also well patronized but certainly not up to the day time. Some of the library’s activities during the month includes; read and share, individual reading, group reading, storytelling, spelling of words and playing of games. The library were well patronized as a result of some of these activities that were organized. There were other interesting story books we read as well. The night periods were also patronized mostly by the young adults and adult users. They visited the library and read their notes taken from schools, work on their assignments, and read story books among others. So in the Sumbrungu community library, library usage was great.

At the Sherigu community library, attendance to the library was very good. Frequent users were mostly pupils and students of St. Peter and Paul Academy and Dorongo Primary and Junior High School. They visited the library and read story books on individual basis and in groups with the librarian. The also played some exciting games. One of such games was the ‘Yesse’ game.

At the Gowrie-Kunkua community library, library patronage was very encouraging during the month. Since the inauguration of the renovated library, patrons from Kunkua Primary and JHS, Anafobiisi Primary and JHS and some Senior High School students from the Gowrie community who were on vacation were the most users of the library. Patrons read story books on their own and also in group with the librarian, their notes taken from school and played some interesting games.

In conclusion, all the three community libraries witnessed some interesting and encouraging activities in July, we are optimistic of a more interesting happenings in August.