Impact. From the (social) entrepreneurs who are engaged in realizing their social goals to the local partners who continue to measure whether their programs are and remain effective; measuring impact can be complex.
But sometimes the impact of your (social) investment can be made very clear and simple. The wonderful story of the Ghanaian Akpene Darko proves to us the impact of the wonderful program of our local partner To Be Worldwide. Proud of our many years of cooperation.
MY TIME AT THE LITTLE LIBRARY DOWN THE ROAD
The Library unlocked my mind and intellect to a different level very early in life.
My dad took me to the To Be community library at Effia Kuma, Takoradi some 15 years ago, I was around 8 years and that became my home for almost two years every Saturday from 9am till 4pm. I was young, small and with a very heavy bag every Saturday morning, thus I was very noticeable.
I joined a whole new community on my own and created friendships and bonds with people from diverse backgrounds through that beautiful community library. From the roasted plantain seller across the street (who put up that stand purposely because of the library, since most of her customers were the children who frequented the place), to the children I met in the library, to the warm and accessible librarians who manned the library, to the local barber around the curve who I went to trim my hair every other week.
The Library unlocked my mind and intellect to a different level very early in life. I started to understand simple life virtues like honesty, diligence and most importantly compassion from this library. It was in this place that I learned that every human being deserved respect no matter his or her age or station in life. Simple words of courtesy like please, sorry, etc was instilled in everyone who passed there at least when speaking with anyone in the library's premises.
Today I am back to the Sekondi - Takoradi Metropolis as a lawyer, I was called to the Ghanaian bar in the year 2019, as the youngest person to ever achieve such feat and I owe a great deal of the reading habits, simple courtesy and good relationship skills to this magnificent initiative and this library. I will use this opportunity to trumpet the need for every community to have its own community library as it serves a very important function in the growth and well being of young adults. It provides an escape avenue that can be managed and train young adults unto a path f greatness, I am just grateful that the TO BE Library in Effia Kuma was there for me.
Akpene Darko - Cobbina
Do we need to say more?
