Ginny Knowles
This is Ginny’s speech at OCLF’s fundraising dinner in Winnipeg, June 2023:
“Hello Everyone! My name is Ginny, and tonight I’ll be talking about my time in Ghana.
My grandmother Minnie has a life outside of Canada. Every year, she spends three months in Ghana, which is in western Africa. She has committed those months of her life since 1990 when she first started a library.
She started with a little library under a tree and it has now expanded into nine library buildings. Her libraries are such a big part of her life and I only knew about this part of her life through her stories. For years, it would just be “Minnie is in Ghana” and I would hear her stories when she returned. But this always left many questions. I only knew this part of her life through pictures in my head.
Don’t get me wrong, stories are powerful, but it is different to experience these things in real life. This is why Minnie hopes to take all of her grandchildren to Ghana when they are around age 10.
I went to Ghana last August for four weeks. I met many people Minnie has talked about for years, saw places I’d heard of, and did some of the work that she commits so much of her life to.
I went to all of Minnie’s libraries. A project we introduced was making a globe. We brought each library an atlas, a geography card game and material so that everyone could make their own paper mache globe. We spoke to the children about the different continents and oceans and we taught them The World Game. This game teaches about countries’ size, capital cities, and flags. They would also get very competitive over the game and added challenges about who could name and memorize the most flags! After that, we made paper mache globes using balloons and paper cut outs of continents. The children painted them and were able to take them home. They enjoyed the art project and learned more about the world.
I also met a lot of Minnie’s friends and made friends of my own. I loved hanging out with Kwame, Minnie’s very funny and friendly driver.
Another person I met was a man named David. He attends literacy classes at the Osu Library. David recognized the amount of garbage in Accra, and he wanted to change this. He came up with the idea of making recycling bins out of water bottles and rebar. He has made about 40 of these bins for a 10 km loop. Every Sunday, he walks the loop with a wheelbarrow to collect the bottles. We joined him one Sunday to see him in action. He said he has noticed a difference in the amount of garbage strewn around and hopes to continue making more. Ghanaians have also recognized his work. Even the President’s wife wanted to meet David to interview him about his project.
Talk about the tedious stuff- bank negotiations, salaries, human resources, staff arguments. I also saw the tedious side of Minnie’s life in Ghana and just seeing how patiently she waited at the bank or how she made sure to always listen to both sides of the story. This confirmed to me that Minnie really loves her libraries and the people who keep them running.
I loved my trip in Ghana and I now can clearly see the places that Minnie talks about in my head. I appreciate the things I have more and loved seeing the libraries make so many people happy.
And that’s why I thank you for coming tonight to support the libraries because so many people depend on the libraries and love them dearly. Many children receive meals there, and the libraries have taught many adults how to read and write.
Thank you.”
After a couple years of delay due to the pandemic, I made my visit to the libraries just past Easter in late April 2022. I spent the first block of time at the original library in Accra and then the latter two weeks in the small fishing village of Goi east of Accra. The libraries were full all day because the children were on school break. I came with science experiments, book club ideas based on Anne Frank’s diary, story exchanges with local Canadian grandmothers that I know, and techniques for teaching chess.
I contributed to the program with my clubs – chess, science, writing and book clubs, and new games such as Wordle. Within a day or two, interested children had mastered the moves of all chess pieces and were enjoying the game. I must say as an aside that in Goi, it was the adults – Enoch and Promise – who were seen playing well into the evening, engrossed in long periods of thoughtful stares at the board. The older children journaled along as we read Anne Frank’s daily journals, relating their own thoughts to those of Anne about their families, foods, hobbies, and aspirations.
Everyone joined in the science experiments. We drew mazes for the magnets to race through and intricate pictures from graphite in pencils for electricity to flow through while we explored the conductivity of materials. We also made a piano using my little computer combined with onions, potatoes, mangos, and bananas.
The staff are dedicated and very multi-talented. In Osu (Accra), Enoch is ostensibly the math teacher and the office worker who writes the necessary reports of an NGO, but he also has a clear photographic eye and a creative bent in developing arts activities for the children. Justine is quiet and constantly working preparing and cleaning up after activities, keeping the library books clean and repaired. In Goi, Faustina is the quiet partner who is always moving to keep children on task and things in their place while Paulina is the active lead, pumping the children into frenzies with songs and dances. Another Enoch – Goi’s Enoch – creates programs not only for the Goi library but for satellite libraries that are being nurtured by weekly tours with mats set up under trees. Enoch is the next generation raised in Vivian’s library with his eye to the next steps to support his community. I am left in awe by each of them, individually, by their tireless work and their sheer love for their children. Collectively, I see the power of teamwork in the daily dances that they performed in their work together.
Winnipeg’s minus 26 degree temperature took my breath away when I stepped out of the airport last week following my one-month stay in Ghana.
Our libraries remain community hubs with a constant flow of children, activities, and events. Our original library, renamed the Kathy Knowles Community Library in 1993 by local directors, celebrated its 30th anniversary 
This year’s annual librarians’ meeting theme was Inclusion for All. A physiotherapist spoke about the importance for families with children with disabilities to have their children assessed and treated. Massawudu Zakari, now in his twenties, shared his experience as a child when he could only crawl until receiving surgical and physio treatment .He said, “Handicapped people are made to feel inferior and not useful; however most handicapped people are greatly talented and have a lot of ideas to contribute to the growth of the world.”
Children at this library showed me a modest power-generating windmill that they constructed with their science teacher. For more than a month they used the library as their classroom. This project was inspired by their reading of the Malawi-based true story of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. 
Mother’s Day is an honoured tradition in Ghana. OCLF’s library in Korle Gonno hosted a multi-media production of Eté, a poetic eulogy written by Ladé Wosoru, a highly acclaimed Ghanaian poet and retired surgeon, for his late mother. He generously graced the occasion. His powerful words conveyed the depth of his love and admiration for his strong mother. Youthful narrators and a chorus recited his poem against a backdrop of dancers, drummers, and a small musical ensemble of recorders and a violin.
Throughout the month, OLCF was privileged to host Cheryl Schramm, a volunteer from Ottawa. She delighted eager minds with daily science experiments, Wordle puzzles, chess games, and book clubs. Thank you, Cheryl.
David Anakaning, a long-time current literacy learner, provided constant inspiration. He is making plastic recycling bins using discarded plastic bottles and putting them on street corners near his home. Every 
Once again I am writing from my desk in Winnipeg, nice and cosy from Winnipeg’s cold air.
Climate change hit home during my stay when huge waves came crashing down and wiped out hundreds of homes in fishing villages along the coast. Three of our librarians serving at our informal mini-libraries lost their homes. Ruth (pictured at right) was one of them. After relocating, Ruth is still returning to gather and read to children in front of her old home. She also wants to initiate a new library where she now lives – a couple of kilometres inland.
We held a book launch for Maa and Me, an OCLF mother tongue Dangme/English board book, with children at Kablevu’s library. After the brief ceremony we gave out copies to those featured in the book and frozen yogurt – all 300 pieces – to everyone. Sophia was delighted to receive her own copy.
The highlight of the month was hosting a jazz party with all library workers to honour the late Joan Mariacher, a tremendous supporter of OCLF from Vancouver, who passed away last year. It was partially through Joan’s generosity that we were able to build a network of libraries in the Greater Accra region. Joan loved jazz, and although she never wanted any recognition for her donations, I thought this was a fitting tribute. Joana Felih, OCLF’s longest serving librarian, wrote,“ Due to the jazz performance most of us will be jazz lovers.”
I returned to Winnipeg this week, the trip home being a little longer given my mandatory three-day hotel stay in Toronto.
We distributed 60 library-in-a-bag gifts to deserving children living in seven coastal villages. They are among hundreds of children who attend informal library sessions where they sit on mats under trees to listen to their “library madams” read stories aloud. When I asked these children to name their favourite books, a sea of hands went up. Prior to these libraries, children knew only their classroom textbooks.
Our newest library in the coastal village of Kablevu, which opened in November, receives more than 200 children daily. Mabel, their librarian, told me that her job was “a dream come true.” Every day, she and co-worker Sylvanus clean the multiple-louvred windows, sweep the floors, dust the tables, neatly arrange the books, and water the recently planted tree seedlings. Two months ago, we installed a rainwater collection system to harvest water, a precious resource since the community has not received piped water for more than a year. A Ghanaian company generously donated their tank.
At the Korle Gonno Community Library, I enjoyed watching Sosu and the Bukari Boys, a play based on Lawrence Darmani’s short story and a required text for final year junior high school students. I was especially moved when I learned a father of one of the performers custom-made waitress uniforms for this show. Poetry and musical interludes with multiple instruments added to this event. The head teacher told the audience of students and teachers that he was “amazed” to witness such talent.
Before closing, I would like to say our carpenter, now about 86 years (he doesn’t know his exact birthdate), is still eager to take on new jobs. His furniture with attention to detail and quality remains unsurpassed. Like me, he feels he is part of our extended “library family.”