Bongo (U/E), May 28, GNA – AfriKids Ghana, a Child Rights Non-Governmental Organization has supported needy pupils in some basic schools in seven districts in the Upper East Region, as part of its coronavirus recovery project.
About 182 pupils from the Kassena-Nankana and Bolgatanga Municipalities, Bongo, Talensi, Nabdam, Builsa South, and Builsa North Districts received school uniforms and learning materials such as exercise books, pens, and pencils.
The NGO also gave 30 educational and health facilities, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) materials including improved veronica buckets to encourage hygiene practices against the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a short ceremony in Bongo to present the items to the beneficiaries, Mr David Pwalua, the Country Director, said the items were valued at GH¢ 100,000.00.
He said the donation was part of the COVID-19 relief and recovery project launched in 2020 to support vulnerable persons and communities in northern Ghana to minimize the adverse impact of the pandemic.
Mr Pwalua said apart from the public and radio programmes designed to sensitize members of the public especially the beneficiaries to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 protocols, AfriKids Ghana further supplied food items and other hygiene and preventive items to the communities to help them fight the virus.
He commended the late Mr Nicholas Kumah, former Country Director, AfriKids Ghana for his contribution to the successful implementation of the project and disclosed that more than 70,000 people had benefitted from the project.
“The effects of the pandemic are devastating, businesses of parents have been seriously affected such that they could not afford basic needs of their children to go back to school. We know we cannot provide everything but this is just our modest support to help the children stay in school and learn,” he said.
He urged the pupils to take their studies seriously and appealed to the teachers to monitor and support especially the needy pupils to stay in school and learn.
Mr Madison Anane Amokase, the Bongo District Director of Education, who received the items on behalf of the beneficiaries expressed gratitude to AfriKids Ghana and its partners for the investment they had been making in the educational sector over the years.
He recalled the numerous times AfriKids had supported schools with furniture and other learning materials as well as building capacities of other stakeholders in the educational sector in their operational areas, to enhance the quality of education.
The District Director said the support would go a long way to impact positively on the education of the beneficiary pupils and encourage them to learn.
He urged the pupils to justify the investment made in them by performing well in school.
GNA