play videoAgbeko with some friends in front of the library at Agbozume
A Ghanaian man, who has been living in the United States of America, for more than a decade has spoken for the first time about why he is building a state-of-the-art, American-standard library for the children of Agbozume.
Agbeko Odione Kumordzie, who was born and raised in Agbozume by his late single mother, told GhanaWeb exclusively that he always knew he wanted to do something in his mother’s name, although he wasn’t particularly sure what that would be.
Explaining the story behind how the idea for an ICT library came about, the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) said that when he came back in 2022 to mark a year since his mother’s death, he had an unusual encounter with her (his mother) in a dream.
He said that his mother told him that instead of building a big house that was not beneficial to anyone since he wasn’t even living here, he should think of something else to do for her.
Agbeko told GhanaWeb that he immediately asked around how children in Agobzume learn ICT, and that was when he got the shock of his life, prompting this idea.
“My mother died in 2021, and I came to bury her. In 2022, around the same time, I came to Ghana for a one-year anniversary for my mom. I did not know Nana Tea at the time, but he came for the funeral, and when I came back a year later, on the eve of the anniversary, my mother appeared to me and said, this house you have here is not doing anything for anybody, so do something in my name. So, quickly, on the eve of the anniversary, I asked a friend of mine, how do children here learn computers? And my friend told me that don’t I know that children here learn computers on a blackboard? And I said it will not happen in my lifetime.
“So, I went to Sonto, where my mother went to school when she was very young, and I saw the chiefs and they gave me the land. That was the 2nd of May of last year, because my mother’s anniversary was 1st May. About 150 people came and that day, I told them we are building the ICT lab, and I raised about GH¢10,000. The next day, I bought cement and some other stuff, and that’s how I started the project,” he said via a phone interview, from his base in the USA.