Four students from Ashesi’s Class of 2012 — Maame Abena Owusu-Acheaw, Diana Dayaka Osei, Isaac Bruce and Nana Yaw Nketiah — entered the Dell Social Innovation Competition with a plan to build a network of small libraries throughout Ghana. The Dell Social Innovation Competition is a partnership between Dell and the University of Texas that gives university students all over the world the opportunity to attempt to solve a social problem of their choice. As part of the four-stage competition, the winning students will receive a cash prize of $50,000 to help them launch their idea.
Unfortunately too few children in Ghana today have the opportunity to read. Books are not readily available in many communities and even in many schools. The Ashesi team's entry into the Dell Social Innovation Competition proposes to work with the Ghana Library Board to establish small, one-room libraries throughout the country.
Group members noted that as children each of them had benefitted tremendously from the opportunities which reading gave them to exercise their imaginations. The team feels that developing a reading culture in children gives them the opportunity to break boundaries and discover worlds beyond those they already know.