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“Go build me a library”

This call came from God to Hilda Bromley in 1996 as she was recovering from surgery for a brain tumor. By the following April Mrs. Bromley was well enough to travel to Ghana, West Africa her birthplace and to complete the first step of her call from God. Using money her husband Kirt gave her from their personal savings, Mrs. Bromley was able to build a library in her hometown of Kukurantumi, Ghana and stock it with 3,000 books. In 1998 the Bromleys traveled to Ghana with an additional 9,000 books and organized the library into children, adult and reference sections according to the Dewey Decimal System of Classification.

          Soon other towns in Ghana heard of the library project and requested books from the Bromleys. Hilda sensed that helping other towns set up libraries was part of her mission and so in 1999 Hilda and Kirt shipped 19,000 books to Ghana. Working with local committees which provided a building, a librarian and furniture, the Bromleys donated the shipped books to two towns and helped them set up a library according to the Dewey Decimal System. Since that time the Bromleys have continued to collect books in the USA, ship them to Ghana and then travel there to clear them from the port and distribute them to new towns.

          By March, 2005 a total of 204,000 books were shipped from their home in Copley, Ohio to Ghana. These books were donated to a current total of 28 towns. In each town the Bromleys worked with a local committee and helped them set up a library with all the nonfiction and fiction areas represented in the children’s and adult’s areas. Most of these new libraries were in rural areas where educational resources were severely limited.

In 2006 the Bromleys shipped 29,000 books and three pallets of medical supplies and set up six libraries. From January to April, 2006 they were joined by Katelyn Terrell and Ryan Grube.

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. Attitudes 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.