When Samantha Boateng’s mom came back from a trip to Ghana in 2014 and said the students there wanted books, she sprang into action.
A student at Gar-Field High School in Prince William County, Virginia at the time, Boateng contacted the school’s student council to see if they would help coordinate book drives. They launched a few and eventually collected 600 books.
Boateng then realized they couldn’t fit all those books in a suitcase. So they kept collecting and planned to coordinate how they’d get to Ghana afterward.
Within the year, Boateng oversaw the collection of over 20,000 books.
What started as a book drive turned into a nonprofit called Read 2 Lead, which Boateng said launched with the purpose of providing books to students in Ghana and expanded to help build three libraries there. The nonprofit has collected thousands of books and opened its third library in Ghana this year.
“It really just started out from a place of wanting to give back, and build community, and has really continued to be that for us and also for the communities that we serve,” Boateng said.
The project has personal ties, as Boateng said both of her parents were born in Ghana, and they travel there frequently. She described the nonprofit’s mission as empowering “future leaders by encouraging a love of reading.”
After collecting thousands of books, Boateng said she and her family opened the first library in Ghana’s capital city in 2016. In 2017, it opened a second. The nonprofit used volunteers and collected donations to help build the libraries, but Boateng said, “this work is not cheap at all,” noting her parents have used personal resources to help fund the project.
There aren’t many free public libraries in Ghana, Boateng said.
“There’s kind of a negative stereotype that Ghanaians don’t like to read,” Boateng said. “But we found that it really is just a lack of resources. A lot of people, my parents included, don’t have that constant access to books.”
Most of the libraries are close to primary schools and are widely used by elementary and middle school-aged students. They’re apple green in color and have a computer lab, books, tables and chairs, Boateng said. Some even have spaces for private studying.
Boateng hopes the libraries will help students recognize the importance of books and reading. She said when she was a teenager she read a book per day.
“I felt like by being such an active reader, it had opened a lot of opportunities for me, helped make me a good writer, decent speaker and so on,” Boateng said.
Prince William County students are still connected to Boateng’s project, sorting through and collecting books. And proceeds from Gar-Field’s International Night, which is similar to an international showcase, are donated to the nonprofit.
Brian Bassett, Gar-Field High School’s International Baccalaureate Programme coordinator, other staff members and students traveled to Ghana to help with the third library’s opening.
“We basically didn’t have a garage or a house for like six months plus, because books overtook our lives,” Boateng said. “Everyone was very gracious, and very supportive and excited about the work.”
Boateng also wrote a book, “If You Give a Girl a Book,” and donated about 100 copies to Prince William County schools.
“If you give a girl or any child or any person a book, you’re unlocking a world of opportunity,” Boateng said.
