By Caleb Kuleke, GNA
Ho, July 18, GNA – The Management of the Ho Technical University has commissioned its Infant Care Centre to provide support for nursing mothers within the University community to focus on their responsibilities.
The centre will provide a safe and secure environment for infants and toddlers, expert care and early childhood stimulation, social and cognitive development, convenience for staff and student parents, and a healthier balance between family life and professional commitments.
Professor Ben Q. Honyenuga, the Vice Chancellor of the University, remarked that the centre exemplifies their determination to fostering a supportive, inclusive, and family-friendly environment for every member of the University community.
He stated that universities globally were increasingly acknowledging that fostering a conducive atmosphere for families greatly enhances staff productivity, retention, and institutional competitiveness.
The Vice Chancellor said the Centre aligned the University with progressive institutions that recognised the importance of familial support structures in higher education.
He asserted that great institutions are built not solely on impressive infrastructure but, more crucially, on their personnel, and that HTU recognised its faculty and staff as their most valuable resources, thereby enhancing their welfare to improve the quality of education, research, innovation, and service provision.
The VC said the establishment of the Centre represented more than just a building, it embodied their unwavering commitment to fostering work-life balance, gender equity, staff welfare and child development.
He said the Centre reflected their strategic vision of creating a modern, people-centered university that prioritised both academic excellence and the well-being of its community.
Prof Honyenuga stated that HTU believed that when parents are assured of their children’s safety in a supportive and professionally overseen setting, they may concentrate their efforts on their duties and significantly contribute to their collective vision.
Professor Smile Gavua Dzisi, the Chair of the Council at the University stated that HTU maintains rigorous standards, ensuring that the infant care centre is staffed by qualified caregivers equipped with appropriate feeding provisions and stringent hygiene protocols.
She said universities existed to develop human potential; however, they cannot credibly develop the potential of the nation’s children in its classrooms while ignoring the children of its own community at its gates.
“Within these walls, breastfeeding will be supported, immunisation schedules can be tracked, and early childhood stimulation, will begin right here on campus,” Prof Gatsi said.
Prof Dzisi said an institution was not the sum of its buildings but the sum of its people, and people give their best where they were given peace of mind.
Dr Mrs Liticia Effah Manu, the Gender Advocacy and Inclusion Officer at the University, praised the Vice-Chancellor for actualising the concept and acknowledging that supporting parents constitutes an investment in the institution’s most valuable assets.
The Gender Advocacy and Inclusion Officer hoped that the Centre would inspire other institutions to recognise that excellence and compassion could go hand in hand.
GNA
Edited by: Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah