Tigo, a leading Telecommunication Company, is supporting a street library project at Nyanoa, a farming community in the West Akyem District of the Eastern Region.

The project, which is a collaboration between TIGO and Street Library Ghana, is to increase the level of literacy among children in the deprived community, to help them realize their potential.

Mrs Debora Akapko, Corporate Responsibility Manager of TIGO, speaking at the launch of the Street Library project, stated that children who cannot read and write in this modern era would find it difficult achieving anything in the future.

She said as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility, they have initiated a programme called “TIGO Spirit”, where the staff contributes their skills; knowledge and experience to improve the lives of people in deprived communities.

She said the staff of TIGO would every last Friday of every month leave for those communities where there are vulnerable people to support them.

She said Street Library Ghana is one of the social enterprises that they support, under the “TIGO reach for change project”, and that they take literacy to a new level in various communities by reaching out to children in vulnerable areas such as those in Nyanoa.

Mrs Akapko said the street library project is also to motivate the children and encourage them to aspire to greater heights in life, and that, being in a rural community does not mean one is not as good as those in the urban areas.

She said the staff of TIGO would also interact with the children by sharing their experiences and also understand their vulnerability and problems and see how best they can help them develop.

Mrs Akakpo said the corporate social responsibility focuses at nurturing the potentials of the youth by creating an environment within which they can be mentally developed.

Mr Hayford Siaw, Founder and President of Street Library Ghana, said the concept of the street library does not need a physical structure to create opportunities for the children to read.

He said his outfit has trained community volunteers within the society, who would bring the books out on every Tuesdays and Fridays to an open-covered-space for the children to read.” there is no need for children to be denied the opportunity to read just because government does not have the money to build a library for them.”

Mr Siaw also noted that currently the street library project is being run in thirteen communities, adding that, the NGO has also donated boxes of books to those communities.

He further stated that they are constantly in touch with the programme officers, and that, they do quarterly assessment through which they get feedback on the progress of the project to know whether the NGO has been able to make an impact on the children.