Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum of Ghana Headlines BFA Fundraiser
Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum of Ghana Headlines BFA Fundraiser
Books For Africa was honored to welcome His Excellency Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, as the keynote speaker at the annual BFA fundraising luncheon on April 28, 2010, at the St. Paul Town & Country Club in Minnesota.
View slideshow of the Eastcliff reception and fundraising luncheon. A big thank you to photographer Lance Lundstrom for the fantastic photos (www.lancelundstrom.com).
At the luncheon program, BFA board member Asratie Teferra described how he was born in a one-room hut in a rural village in Ethiopia and how the course of his life was changed profoundly by access to education and books. “I ended up living in a larger town [in Ethiopia] where schooling was available. On the contrary, my two brothers were unable to learn further than 4th grade. My brothers did not get the chance they deserve. Only the opportunity for education set us apart.”
In honor of the Ambassador’s visit, Books For Africa is sending a 40-foot sea container of 22,000 books to the Ghana Library System to promote literacy. At the signing ceremony with BFA President Tom Gitaa, Ambassador Agyekum said, “I would like to express my government’s commitment 
to working with you [Books For Africa] on this.” Mr. Gitaa noted that Ghana is one of the top recipients of book donations in Books For Africa’s history, adding, "We at Books For Africa are ready to help Ghana in achieving the Millennium Development Goals."
Read article on the Ghana Embassy's website about Ambassador Agyekum's trip to Minnesota and the ongoing partnership between BFA and Ghana.
While in the Twin Cities, the Ambassador also held meetings with members of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and executives at Thomson Reuters. The company provides core law libraries for BFA’s Law & Democracy Initiative, which sends books to African law schools.