Church Donates Books, Refurbishes Wells in Ghana

Latter-day Saint Charities, the distribution arm of the Church’s Humanitarian Services, presented 12 shipment containers full of thousands of educational books to Ghana’s minister of education in November, reported the Accra Daily Mail.

“Through education our country gets ahead,” says education minister Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi. “Many have and will benefit by your humanitarian aid.”

Brother Edward Richard K. Dwemoh represented Latter-day Saint Charities in presenting the books. “Knowledge is power, and through studying books most of us have changed attitudes,” he said.

Elder Neil Darlington, director of Latter-day Saint Charities in Ghana, added, “The real value of a book … becomes priceless when parents, children, and teachers read … to gain wisdom.”

In addition to donating books, Latter-day Saint Charities is also refurbishing wells, called boreholes, in villages in the Takoradi and Assin Foso areas of Ghana. As of January the organization had completed 40 refurbishing projects and had begun an additional 50 projects.

Latter-day Saint Charities worked with local priesthood leaders and local Peace Corps workers to determine which villages were in greatest need to have their wells repaired.

One of the restored boreholes is in Assin Brofoyedur. The chief, Dumpah II, expressed gratitude “for … making it possible for the well to work again.” About 800 villagers benefit from this one borehole.

The village of Achowa also received a refurbished well. Since the well stopped working 14 months earlier, about 500 residents in the village have had access only to ground water that they could catch in a rainstorm.

Village chief Nana Domkor III of Fasin expressed the feelings of many villagers, repeating, “May God bless you, may God bless you!”