Equipping Ghana’s young people
with Scripture

By Naa Oyoo Ace-Acquah, Youth Impact Project Coordinator for the Bible Society of Ghana

Dagbani children near Tamale, northern Ghana. Photo: UBS/Geoffrey Stamp (GHA00T-28.JPG)

ACCRA, Ghana — “I am 10 years old and attend the Royal Preparatory School in Takoradi. Please, I need a Bible.”

“I am a boy of 13 years, and I have taken God as my personal saviour. Please, I don’t have a Bible.”

These are extracts from just two of the 10,000 to 16,000 letters received by the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG) each year, written by children aged between nine and 18. All the children express a desperately felt need to have their own copy of the Bible – something their parents cannot provide in a country with an annual per capita income of just US$340.

Faced with this great need, but unable to provide free Bibles for every child, the BSG has seen an incredible opportunity to help these thousands of enthusiastic children to get to know the Bible. Its response has been the Youth Impact Project, which it began implementing in July, with the support of the Bible Societies in Australia and the Netherlands.

The Society has already sent 1,000 packages to children who have written requesting Bibles, containing the first stage of a three-part Bible study course. The correspondence course is based on the books of Mark, Acts and selected Epistles, all of which are provided free of charge, along with the study material. On completing all three stages of the course, each child will receive a certificate and a voucher allowing them to buy a Bible at half price.