“Reading Gives Me An Opportunity To Learn About Other People’s Way Of Life”- Dzifa Gomashie

A former deputy minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Honourable Abla Dzifa Gomashie, has extolled the benefits of cultivating the habit of reading. Commenting on the importance of reading, Hon. Gomashie said, “For me, I think that it gives me an opportunity to learn more about other people’s way of life – their culture, tradition, music, dance, heritage and food. All of these are captured by authors in books.”

According to Hon. Gomashie, reading also has the potency of taking one to places where one may never get the opportunity to travel to in his or her life time. “Reading exposes you to the world that you may never have to see. You may never get the opportunity to see certain places in life but you can read about those places in books,” she said.

Hon. Gomashie made these statements in a documentary produced by the Ghana Book Development Council (GBDC). The documentary forms part of GBDC’s campaign, dubbed “Learn to read; read to learn” which has been initiated to create and increase awareness of the numerous benefits of reading, particularly to children. The documentary comprises prominent personalities and role models who still make time to read in spite of their busy schedule.

These prominent personalities and role models, who are people the children readily identify with, have been recorded reading aloud children’s books, particularly books written by Ghanaian authors. Hon. Gomashie read “The Little Baker” written by Delali Avemega.

The Ghana Book Development Council (GBDC) is an Agency under the Ministry of Education mandated to oversee the development, regulation and effective planning of the Book Industry in Ghana. One of the functions of the GBDC is to ensure the establishment of suitable machinery for the promotion of reading among all age groups, particularly among children. To promote reading among school children and also promote indigenous books, the GBDC periodically organises Book Fairs and Reading Festivals as well as forms Reading and Creative-Writing Clubs at Basic and Senior High schools.