About Us
1.
Hilda and Kirt
Bromley
2. Board of
Trustees
3.
Staff of the Library/Warehouse in Kukurantumi, Ghana
4.
History
1. Hilda and Kirt Bromley
The Bromleys: Hilda was born
in Kukurantumi, Ghana in 1946. Her parents were farmers but they saw
that she received the best education locally available. Hilda was in
the first class to graduate from Ofori Panin Secondary School in 1966.
In addition to excelling in academics Hilda was introduced to Track and
Field and as a freshman became the National Champion in the 880 yard
Track event. She continued as national champion during four of her
years at Ofori Panin, and her national record in the 880 yard event was
unbroken for 20 years. After her marriage to Kirt in 1969 she was
trained and worked as a licensed practical nurse for twenty years. She
has a lively faith in God and was open to God's direction after an
operation to remove a brain tumor in 1996. Hilda and Kirt have two
adult children and five grandchildren.
Kirt was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. He first went to
Ghana in 1967
with the US Peace Corps. While serving there he met and married Hilda.
He received B.A. in Religious Studies from Franklin and Marshall
College, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Antioch University and a
Master of Arts in Ministry from Ursuline College. He taught students in
regular education classes for 14 years and students in special
education classes for 20 years. He is a Regional Coordinator for Faith
and Light USA East (http://faithandlightusa.org/). Kirt retired from
the Akron Public Schools in 2002.
Address: 3531 Humphrey St., St. Louis, MO 63118 USA
phone: 314-865-3733
or P.O. Box 46, Kukurantumi, E/R, Ghana, West Africa
E-mail: (Please use the 'Contact Us' page)
2.
Board of Trustees:
As a nonprofit organization incorporated in Ohio the
Books For Africa Library Project has an active local Board of Trustees.
They make the decisions concerning the goals of the Project.
Members:
Phyllis Titus, President; Sarah Greer; Deborah
Westermann: Vice President ; Chia-Min Chen; Lee Friend; Eleanor Reed;
Dr. Fannie Brown; Eleaza Gandy; Hilda Bromley, Managing Director and
Kirt Bromley, Assistant Director
Snapshot after August 2006 Meeting:
Pictured: Mary Jane Donohoe, Phyllis Titus, Hilda, Kirt,
Lee Friend, Deborah Westermann (Missing from picture: Sarah Greer,
Chia-Min Chen, Eleaza Gandy, Dr. Fannie Brown, Eleanor Reed)
Library Staff, Kukurantumi, Ghana
3. Staff of Main
Library in Kukurantumi, Ghana
This is the first library the Bromley's established in
Ghana. The staff of the library looks after the library there and the
Library Project's warehouse on the same property, and help with the
new shipment of books when it arrives. They are the only paid members
of The Books For Africa Library Project. The staff consists of:
Vera Yeboah: Librarian
Florence , Assistant Librarian
Kwasi Ampaw, Manager
4. History
of The Books For Africa Library Project
The Books For Africa Library
Project was started in 1997 in Copley, Ohio by Kirt and Hilda Bromley.
While Mrs. Bromley was recovering from brain tumor surgery in 1996, she
received a call from God; "Go build me a library". Since her faith in
God and His goodness and love for her had grown tremendously during her
recovery, she responded immediately to God's call. That year with
God's help the Bromleys collected 3000 books and the money to ship the
books to Ghana. In the spring of 1997 Mrs. Bromley traveled to Ghana to
collect the shipment and set up the library in Kukurantumi. However, it
soon became apparent that the proposed building to house the books was
too run down. The Bromleys donated their savings of $8000 to supervise
and to construct a library building with benches, tables, chairs
shelves and electricity. A librarian was trained, and the books
were catalogued and shelved. The place was opened for use to everyone
in town for free.
In 1998 more donated books
and also computers were shipped with money raised from individuals,
churches, organizations and a multicultural concert. These books were
added to the first library. Word began to spread around Ghana and soon
people from different towns wanted to have the same project done in
their own towns. In order to meet the demands of establishing more
libraries in Ghana, the Bromleys formed a Board of Trustees for the
library project and founded a nonprofit corporation in March of 1999.
This Board devised requirements for the communities in Ghana which
desired books and computers. Each town in Ghana desiring books had to
provide a building, shelves, benches, tables, chairs, electricity, a
step-down transformer for computers and their own librarian. The only
exception is that the expenses in the first library in Kukurantumi
including the payment of two librarians are paid by Books For Africa.
In 1999 the Board of the
Library Project selected three towns in rural areas to be recipients of
books and computers. 19,000 books and 20 computers were collected and
$10,688 was raised to send the items to Ghana. Again the Bromleys paid
their own way and spent 2 months in Ghana working to set up the three
libraries in 3 rural towns after cataloguing and numbering the books
with the Dewy Decimal system.
In 2000 more requests were
received from new communities in Ghana. The Bromleys collected 29,000
books and 29 computers for shipment to Ghana. During summer of year
2000 the Bromleys traveled to Ghana with two volunteers, a mother and
son from Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, to work on the library project. With
their help four new libraries were set up in rural towns.
In the summer of 2001 Books
For Africa collected 29,000 donated books and 15 computers. Money to
ship and distribute these items was raised through foundations,
churches, organizations, schools, individuals and the Bromley's own
contributions. Mr. and Mrs. Bromley traveled to Ghana with a volunteer
who is a professional librarian from the Akron Public Schools, and set
up two new libraries. In addition forty boxes of medical books were
collected from area physicians and donated to the Ghana College of
Medicine in Korle-Bu, Accra. A one-day in-service was also given to all
the established libraries, now ten in all.
In 2003 ten towns in
Ghana requested books for their libraries. Over 65,000 books were
shipped to Ghana in November, 2002. The Bromleys took delivery of these
books in Ghana in January, 2003. That year they used $24,000 of their
own money to construct a warehouse in Ghana. The purpose of the
warehouse is to sort, catalog and store the books prior to distribution
to the new libraries. In previous years the main library in Kukurantumi
was closed all summer because the incoming donations always took all
the space.
Kirt retired from the Akron
Public School System in December, 2002. With freedom from a nine to
five job, and reliance on the teachers pension the Bromleys have been
able to devote more time to the Library Project without taking any kind
of salary for their work. In the early months of 2003 the Bromleys set
up seven libraries. The following towns received between 5,000 and
12,000 books apiece: Sovie, Asokore, Effiduase, Suhum, Dzodze, Akrodie
and Buduburam. The latter site is at the refugee camp for those fleeing
the war in Liberia. In addition, the following libraries that were
stocked in previous years received additional books: Mepe, Abetifi, and
Nkwanta.
In the fall of 2003 the
Bromleys returned to Ghana with 26,000 more books and set up four new
libraries in the early months of 2004. The Bromleys were able to spend
five months in Ghana on that trip. The annual in-service was offered to
representatives from the existing libraries and the four prospective
libraries. The keynote speaker gave an informative address on the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ghana. In addition to shipping the books the
Bromleys were able to ship several pallets of medical supplies for the
medical clinics local to Mrs. Bromley's home town. These supplies were
donated by Summit Mission International in Copley, Ohio.
For the work in 2005 the
Bromleys shipped 26,000 books to Ghana. In January the Bromleys
inspected seven towns and then set up libraries with from 4,000 to
6,000 books apiece. At the annual in-service in January 2005
representatives from 28 towns attended. In addition to a review of best
practices for small libraries there were two speakers on the HIV/AIDS
epidemic. As in the previous year the Bromleys were able to deliver
medical supplies from Summit Mission International to local medical
clinics.
In February and March, 2006 Books For Africa Library
Project set up libraries in five new towns. These were Sefwi Dwinase in
the Western Region, Woe in the coastal area of the Volta Region,
Teteman-Buem, Mim, and Ta'am Pooram near Bolgatanga. The town of Begoro
opened a new library building and Books For Africa Library Project was
able to integrate the existing collection of books which we donated in
2000 with an additional 3,000 books. Assisting us in setting up the new
libraries were two volunteers from Ohio, Ryan Grube and Katelyn
Terrell. They spent three months with us from January to early April
helping with the new libraries and the in-service. At the in-service in
January, 2006 over 24 towns sent representatives. Twelve of these towns
were given funds to purchase prizes for their reading contests and all
attendees were given a box of books and toys to be used as prizes as
well. The participants were given information on the HIV/AIDS epidemic
by a Ghanaian medical doctor and Kirt spoke to them about best library
practices.
In October, 2007
The Library Project shipped 36,000 books to Ghana. The Bromleys set up
an additional four libraries bringing the total number of libraries to
37. In April, 2007 they met with the Acting Director of The Ghana
Library Board, Mr. Omari Tenkorang. The Ghana Library Board is the
national library system in Ghana; the Board supports 52 libraries
throughout the country. The Bromleys agreed to donate all of the
remaining books in the library warehouse, almost 4000 books, to The
Ghana Library Board.
In recognition of the 10th
anniversary of Books For Africa Library Project a special in-service
was held in Kukurantumi, Ghana from Thursday to Sunday, January 11-14,
2007. On Friday morning a presentation on the personal and social
challenges of HIV/AIDS was given by Matthew 25 House. This group of
HIV/AIDS victims travels around Ghana and informs the public of health
and social issues regarding the disease. On Saturday morning a Ghanaian
non-profit corporation called Attitudes Ghana spoke about the disease
of alcoholism and its treatment through Alcoholics Anonymous. Attitides
Ghana returned to Kukurantumi two weeks later to give an all day
seminar on alcoholism.
During the 10th
anniversary in-service special prizes were awarded to the winners of
reading contests in 21 of the libraries. Each contest winners stood
before the assembly and related how they won the contest and the impact
the library has had in their lives.
Books for Africa
Library Project opened up three new libraries in 2008 and four new
libraries in 2009. Details are included in the Summary 2009 report
accessed from our Home Page. We also distributed 36,000 books in
Liberia in November and December 2008.
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