Residents of Kogle in the Upper West Region will for ever remain grateful to the Kuupole family of Nandom-Kogle for providing them with the first ever library in the community.
The Head of the Kuupole family and Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Donwini Dabire Kuupole and his wife Dr. (Mrs.) Alfredina Kuupole who are the brains behind the one-point-six-million Ghana-Cedi project say they want to make more Professors from their village through the initiative.
GBC’s, Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo reports that the magnificent library has an ICT centre to accommodate at least forty computers, seating capacity for one hundred people and an office among others.
The wife of Professor Kuupole, Dr. (Mrs.) Alfredina Zebto Penn Kuupole played a key role in coordinating the planning and construction of the project.
The DCE for Nandom, Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang who led the benefactors to inaugurate the facility gave an update on the BECE results of the area from 2014 to 2017 and tasked the Headmaster of Kogle Junior High school and his team to help improve the past rate of the school to at least sixty percent by the end of next academic year.
Professor Kuupole who attended Kogle Roman Catholic primary and middle schools from 1962 to 1971 talked about the motivation for building the library.
He stated: “I am on retirement and we thought we should have this project in memory of the parents who toiled to get us where we are, I’m talking of my father and my mother, who are late today [no more].So this edifice is erected in memory of them for their toils and also for the community, so that the community should benefit from it and raise children who will come to replace us. I want a professor from this community, not a professor born and raised outside Kogle, but a professor who would have attended Kogle school. That is why we are doing this project”.
Professor Kuupole was very grateful to the former Second Lady, Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur, National Investment Bank, Kingdom Books and Stationery Limited, EPP books and Stationery Limited, Rotary Club of Accra, Mr. Matthew Yankey as well as Mr. Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang among others for supporting the project.
The Chief of Kogle, Naa Suzaghl Festus thanked God for giving his community a person of the calibre of Professor Kuupole who has not forgotten aboutww his roots.
The Chief of Kogle said: “I also started from here, from the same ‘kakala’ tree over there and by the grace of God ,we all managed to go through”.
Naa Suzaghl compared the library to an elephant killed for the benefit of a community. The Minister for the Interior and MP for Nandom, Ambrose Dery told Professor Kuupole and Dr. (Mrs.) Alfredina Kuupole that they have shown that they are not education professionals just for the money, but they want to leave the library as a monument of their contribution to the education of our children.
Mr. Dery advised young people to utilize the library and avoid the [over] use of social media, saying social media can give children materials that are not appropriate for their age.
The Upper East Regional Libarian, Leslie Kansanga who deputized for the Executive Director of the Ghana Library Authority asked the people of Kogle to use the library to improve their reading and enhance their academic pursuit.
The Headteacher of Kogle Primary, Baduon Abdul-Aziz also expressed appreciation to the Kuupole family for constructing and donating the library to the school. He promised that the staff and pupils of Kogle basic school will be “dedicated, determined and above all, disciplined in using the library facility to achieve the desired academic excellence”.
Story by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
