Tigo Ghana’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility programme, Shelter for Education, has partnered with Raising Readers Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that is committed to encouraging children to read.
At an official ceremony in Accra to launch the initiative, the CEO for Tigo, Roshi Motman, was optimistic that together with Raising Readers Foundation, the Tigo’s Shelter for Education team would be able scale up and have a wider impact on children.
“Reading is priceless – it opens up doors beyond our imagination. It opens our eyes and minds to the world and it helps us improve on vocabulary and dictation. Language is the foundation of learning and development and reading helps us get the language right,” she said.
She gave the assurance that Tigo will continue to support Ghana’s socio-economic development through various initiatives under the Sustainable Development Goals. She listed Tigo’s contribution to education to include infrastructural development for several basic schools in rural areas and the partnerships various organisations including Street Library Ghana and Reach for Change just to mention a few.
Talking about the vision of Raising Readers Ghana, the Founder, Nana Aba Anamoah, said the goal is to create a mobile literacy outreach initiative focused on recreational reading beyond the classroom.
“We have started off by creating reading clubs in various communities. In partnership with Tigo and other donors, we hope to expand in future and make use of the various community libraries dotted all over Ghana that are not currently in use,” she said.
The Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, who was the guest speaker at the launch said a nation without readers is a nation without a future.
“From reading we learn the lessons of history, we learn the solutions to national and personal problems, we learn from the experiences of others and learn to appreciate that other people may have different perspectives from us however it doesn’t make them wrong. From reading we learn life skills, we acquire knowledge, and we learn wisdom. Reading is critical to our survival as people and as a nation,” she emphasized.
Other dignitaries at the event included the former Minister for Sports and Member of Parliament of Odododiodio Constituency, Nii Lantey Vandepuije, award-winning musician Michael Owusu Addo, known popularly as Sarkodie, Dr. Michael Boadi Nyamekye, General Overseer of Makers House Chapel International, actress Yvonne Okoro and Television host and lawyer Sandra Ankobiah. Several other sports personalities also donated reading books to the project.
About Raising Readers:
Raising Readers is a non-governmental organisation based in Accra. It was founded with a passion to improve the lives of children and young adults by providing inspiring book collections and engaging literacy programmes to schools and communities across the country. The organization aspires to empower and embolden every child through a culture of reading.
About TIGO Ghana:
Tigo started operations in Ghana in 1992 as the first Mobile Network Operator. It is part of Millicom International Cellular (MIC) which provides mobile, voice, data, cable television, broadband and financial services to over 50 million customers in 13 emerging markets in Africa and Latin America. In Ghana, it was launched under the name Mobitel and has since been operating for 24 years with a current subscriber base of over 5 million. In 2002 it was rebranded to ‘Buzz’, and changed to ‘Tigo’ in 2006 to reflect the standard brand name within the Millicom Group. Tigo is a solid, dynamic and innovative brand actively driving digital and financial inclusion. In 2015 Tigo made significant strides in enhancing its brand value. This is evidenced by various awards received, a total of 11 local and international awards. In 2016 it was named ‘Telecom Company of the Year’ by the prestigious Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana. For more information, visit www.tigo.com.gh