Damang (W/R), July 04, GNA-Gold Fields Ghana Foundation (GFGF) scholarship scheme recipients from Abosso Goldfields Limited (Damang Mine) have been advised to make the best of the opportunity given them.
Mr Abdel-Razak Yakubu, the Community Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, revealed this to journalists when the Mine had its quarterly community consultative committee meeting with their stakeholders.
He said students within the Mines catchment communities who were in various tertiary institutions in the country received scholarship awards from the GFGF and afterwards they monitor their academic performance.
“During the last semester, we noticed the number of beneficiaries who were slipping into third class at the University Level had gone up by three percent” Mr Yakubu noted.
He added that as the GFGF hoped to support more students in its operational area to be useful to their families, communities and the country in future, parents should ensure their wards study hard.
Mr Yakubu said “The Mine would meet the students with their parents and ensure they go through counseling to enable them improve upon their performance. Students who fail to make use of this opportunity would not continue to enjoy the scholarship”
“The GFGF has supported many beneficiaries in its host communities to attain higher heights. We are proud of their achievement and expect others to do the same” he indicated.
On employment, Mr Yakubu encouraged the employment committee to ensure a lot of qualified women applied when there were vacancies within the Mine or its contractors.
He continued “Our analysis for the first six months of this year shows that only four percent of the people presented for interviews were women, and that was not encouraging. It is the company’s policy to increase women participation in mining and so we want to use this procedure to entice more women.
“We want competent and dedicated women who would be good examples in the Mine and to our contractors so that Gold Fields would be inspired to continue employing women” he stated.
Nana Kwabena Amponsah IV, Divisional Chief of Bosomtwe Traditional Area, tasked the beneficiaries to put up better performance to motivate the GFGF to award more students in their host communities with scholarships.
The meeting was also used to update the stakeholders on the mine’s projects and programmes.
GNA