Shortly after its launch at a colourful ceremony in Tema, the iMEM Foundation has delivered 200 books written by various African writers to the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ). This was a donation which was pledged at the launching ceremony of iMEM Foundation.

The Foundation, established to support and advocate for leadership to transform and sustain the fortunes of Ghana, would center its efforts in leading advocacy in the areas of natural resources governance, combating corruption and creating awareness about our African-ness. There is also an objective hinged on charity.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Mrs Comfort Aniagyei, a Director of iMEM Foundation said the motivation for donating the books is aimed at aiding teaching and learning in Ghana’s leading journalism school, an educational institution she described as very key to Ghana’s development.

She said her foundation acknowledges the role journalists play in nation building and in line with helping students of GIJ to be better placed to play that role well after school, iMEM Foundation carefully selected books written by African writers whose works have contributed immensely to the development of not only Ghana but also other African countries so they could learn from such distinguished writers.

She continued that in a quest to help address the iMEM factor, “the iMEM foundation is donating 200 books written by people like us to the Ghana Institute of Journalism and hoped this donation of books would serve the following purpose: the distinguished writers would serve as role models for our young people seeking knowledge to become disseminators of information to the world, the African writers would touch the heart and souls of all of us to cherish our African-ness and these books would show the way to encourage us to become our own story tellers. Who better to benefit from this than our young people at the Ghana Institute of Journalism who are aspiring to become storytellers?”.

She added that even though students of journalism are taught that their role is basically to inform, educate and entertain the people, they should be prepared to go beyond the afore-mentioned by prioritizing the nation’s interest above personal or even partisan interest.

While lauding the efforts of GIJ and other journalism institutions for producing journalists who have made significant contributions towards nation building, she advised students of GIJ not to lose sight of the onerous responsibility they carry in respect of shaping the minds of the people.

Their role presents them significant opportunities to continuously re-direct the focus of the nation to the achievement of our developmental goals.
“If these books lead you and future generations to drink deep from the wisdom that our history bestows, the present that we all play in and to shape the future that we want our children to inherit, if we can clothe our minds with the subtle African-ness that these books portray, iMEM Foundation would have had a reason for being” Mrs Aniagyei commented.

A delegation from GIJ led by Mr Abdul Razak Iddrisu, a senior Librarian assistant at the school received the donated books on behalf of GIJ and thanked iMEM Foundation for its kind gesture. He promised that GIJ will ensure that the books are put to good use by ensuring that the books are always available at the library for students’ use.