By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), July 12, GNA – The Rescue to Effective Learning through Creative Applications and Sustainable Opportunities for all, (Relcaso Ghana), Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) in Wa, has rescued an eight-year-old child, Rihainatu Dramani, orphaned by the 2022 serial killings in Wa.
The intervention was through the Scholarship Scheme for Needy Children (SSNeC) project implemented by Relcaso Ghana in partnership with Willi-Gif College of Arts and Technology, a private basic school in Wa.
Little Rihainatu, a basic one pupil of Willi-Gif College, is currently benefiting from a full scholarship package, which covers her school fees, school uniforms, school bus and feeding.
Rihainatu’s father was gruesomely killed in 2022 at a private school in Wa where he was on duty as a night private security guard.
Presenting a statement during the third Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) meeting of the school, she said her father’s death had rendered her in a state of destitute and helpless until the intervention by Relcaso Ghana.
Little Rihaina thanked the NGO and Willi-Gif College for rescuing her and giving her hope for a better future through the educational scholarship.
She appealed to the appropriate stakeholders including the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) chaired by the Regional Minister, the Wala Traditional Council, the media, and the Wa Municipal Assembly to take stringent measures to end that cruel act, which was rendering many child orphans in Wa.
“The surviving orphans are susceptible to long-term psychological trauma, depression, anger, anxiety, feelings of loneliness, sadness including withdrawing and self-isolation,” Rihainatu said.
Relcaso Ghana is currently offering partial and full educational scholarships to 26 children under the SSNeC programme in partnership with Willi-Gif College in Wa depending on the level of the child’s vulnerability.
Mr Williams Ayaaba Akongbabre, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Relcaso Ghana who doubles as the proprietor of Willi-Gif College of Arts and Technology said, his decision to support the vulnerable children was borne out of the desire to ensure that no child was left behind in access to quality education due to financial challenges.
He said during his community work, he came across many children like Dramani Rihainatu suffering in various communities and needed the intervention of kind-hearted individuals and institutions to save them from those upbringing challenges.
Mr Akongbabre, therefore, called on child-minded organisations and individuals to partner with Relcaso Ghana to expand the SSNeC project to a boarding status to benefit more needy children within the municipality including those from hard-to-reach communities.
Addressing parents at the PTA meeting, he encouraged them to take proper care of their children and to “speak positive words about them as the tongue is of blessing as well as a curse to ensure their proper growth and development.”
Mr Akongbabre further emphasised that proper discipline was a right every child was entitled to and cited references from the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible, which speak to disciplining the child in the right way.
The PTA meeting was characterised by performances and exhibition of talents by the school children to the admiration of the parents and teachers.
GNA