By Stanley Senya
Accra, Feb. 22, GNA-The children of Mrs. Mary Boye, a former Librarian and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Information Studies at the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, have donated a rare collection of Ghanaian children’s books, which are mostly out of print, to the George Padmore Library.
The children are Mr. Gilbert Boye and Eileen Koshie Boye.
They made the donation to honour the memory of their mother who rose from being a Child’s Librarian to work as a Librarian at Ghana’s premier University.
The brief ceremony took place at the premises of the George Padmore Library at Ridge on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
The children noted that the gesture was in line with Mrs. Boye’s vision of seeing children inculcating the art of reading in their daily lives and was particularly passionate about African children writers.
“When we were children, my mum was always on our necks to read. She was always encouraging us and our friends in the community to read a book so that we can sharpen our minds and become impactful people in society,” Eileen Boye said.
They appealed to authorities at the George Padmore Library to take good care of the books as they have valuable lessons in them which can go a long way to impact children.
“On behalf of all of us, we humbly appeal to you to have a special place for these books so that people can come in and read,” Mr. Boye added.
They revealed during the ceremony that they are planning to donate some more books to the Library in the coming months.
Mr. Simon Tetteh Teye, the Director of George Padmore Library, who received the books on behalf of the Library, expressed his gratitude to the Boye family and promised that the books will be protected for posterity.
“We don’t joke with donated materials because they are someone’s property. We will do our best to get a shelve and label it after your mum so that anybody who will come in there for research or read will have a look at it,” he said.
He appealed to other Ghanaians to emulate the family’s kind gesture by donating books and other items to the Library to help improve and enhance its activities.
Some of the books which were donated included The Cross Drums by Meshack Asare; The Dancing Money Box by Peggy Oppong; Mmofra Nkomo Bi by Abena Korama; Kofi Goes Back to Farm by M. B. Keelson; The Berry Basket by Diana M. Mbandze among others.
GNA