By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), Oct. 17, GNA – The Office of the Upper West Regional Chief Iman has launched an educational endowment fund to bridge the financial gap of enthusiastic, brilliant but needy Muslim students in the region to enable them to attain higher academic laurels.
The Office of the Regional Chief Imam said the fund had become necessary due to several requests it received from students for financial support to access higher education amidst the endemic poverty level among the Muslim community in the region.
The fund was also to mobilise material and financial resources as well as undertake other activities toward the development of education in the region.
Mr Zakaria Abdul-Rahaman, a representative of the Office of the Regional Chief Imam, in a presentation on the fund in Wa during the launch, said the applicant’s request must be endorsed by the applicant’s District Chief Imam before she or he could access the support.
He said those eligible for the support were Muslim students from the region or whose parents or guardians reside and identified themselves with activities of the Islamic community in the Upper West Region.
Mr Abdul-Rahaman noted that the Chief Imam conceived the idea to establish the educational fund as a sustainable intervention to the financial needs of the Muslim students in the region.
“This will not only liberate the needy but brilliant youth from the shackles of financial constraints to realise their dreams of attaining higher academic levels but also bridge the widening educational gap between Muslim youth and their counterparts,” he explained.
The fund dubbed: “Upper West Regional Chief Imam Educational Endowment Fund” (IMAMFUND), is aimed to provide scholarships to at least 50 qualified students in the region at all levels of education every year.
Mr Abdul-Rahaman said it was also, to among other things, facilitate the acquisition of scholarships for at least 20 students to pursue various programmes outside the country, especially in Golf Cooperation Countries every year.
He explained that it was to mobilise funds from identified groups and institutions, business people, Non-governmental Organisations, and cooperate entities, among others.
Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister, observed that the launch of the fund was in the right direction as it was in line with the government’s aim of bettering the human capital of the country for national development.
“Development is a shared responsibility and this initiative by the Regional Chief Imam is a critical step in the right direction since government alone cannot solve all our challenges”, he said.
Dr Salih, therefore, entreated the people of the region to emulate the intervention by the Chief Imam and to support the youth who, by no fault of theirs, were unable to support their education.
The minister also called on all well-meaning Ghanaians, particularly the Upper West Region, to support the course of the Chief Imam to make it a success.
Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia donated an amount of GHS20,000.00 to the fund, Alhaji Hanan Abdul-Wahab, Chief Executive of Ghana Buffer Stock Company donated GHS10,000.00; Mr Ambrose Dery, Minister of the Interior, GHS2,000; and Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, Upper Regional Minister donated GHS5,000.00 to the fund.
GNA