However, the success story of a 31-year-old volunteer teacher from a rural school in the Central Region, in his bid to make a library out of empty shelves, proves that the model can be utilized for genuine reasons to make an impact on society.
When Abeku Adams joined the staff of Akyen Senior High School, at Ekumfi Mbroboto, in the newly-created Ekumfi District, as English Language and Christian Religious Studies tutor, little did he know that the school's library, which was built in 2014, had no books.
Mr. Adams, an ardent reader, immediately sought permission from the authorities, and began crowdfunding among his friends on Facebook by posting pictures of empty shelves inside the library, accompanied by the hashtag: #booktheshelves.
Although the initial target was 1,000 cedis, which in his estimation, could have fetched as many as 1,000 books, according to an offer from a renowned book seller, by 16th March, he had received a total of 2,493 cedis, mostly via mobile money.
Yesterday, new pictures of Mr. Adams and his students filling the empty shelves with books were posted on his timeline along with receipts from EPP Books, and other outlets.
"After sorting through, and choosing carefully, we were able to transport 2,000 books from Tema and Accra. Every donation or payment is posted on my timeline," he said.
"Donations came from all over the country. One friend even sent money from Australia. It is just amazing that all this was started on Facebook some two months ago."
"For the purpose of continuity, I deemed it prudent to invest the 'excess' donation into an EdFund account at GTBank. Accountability is an expressive attitude that stems from deeper understanding of life. My grandfather (an ex-soldier) once told me that a person who can dubiously spend a group's money on his personal needs can kill another person to make life comfortable for himself, because stealing 'public' money is actually like spilling blood," he concluded.
Abeku Adams, a product of Mfantsipim School, and past president of the University of Cape Coast chapter of National Union of Ghana Students, is currently working on a project dubbed "Rural Literacy," a model he believes could be replicated nationwide to compliment existing government-funded educational programmes.
