Tanyigbe, Aug 4, GNA - The Council of Ewe Associations of North America (CEANA) has cut sod for the construction of a basic school complex for the Tanyigbe-Anyigbe community in the Ho Municipal Area. The 25,000-dollar project is to replace a dilapidated block built in the early seventies but weakened and roofs ripped off by a storm in the eighties.

The sod cutting formed part of CEANA's congress in Ho that is under the theme "Educational Development in Ewe Land: Focusing on Infrastructure Improvement".

Mr Wallace Setranah, CEANA President, said the organization, which is a development advocacy group, would support education in Ewe land as catalyst for all round development of the area.

Mr Kwami Wutor, a Member of the Education Committee of the community, said the project had come to compliment local efforts to improve academic performance and school infrastructure in the town. He conceded that the school structure, which would be replaced, was no safe place for academic work, and that pupils and teachers for their safety, normally raced home when rain clouds formed. Miss Ivy Quarshie, CEANA Executive Director, appealed to citizens of the town to support the project by engaging in communal labour to complete it early.

Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho Municipal Chief Executive, said government regarded education as crucial for development and had been doing all within the means of the country to provide or rehabilitate school infrastructure in all communities.

He said Tanyigbe was being provided with a modern kindergarten and teachers' quarters.

Mr Goh urged the people to take advantage of the re-construction of the Ho-Nyive road, which runs through the area, to go into serious agricultural production.

He commended CEANA for the project but asked that cooperation between it and the Tanyigbe community grew beyond providing a school block for the town.

Other activities of CEANA during its congress include excursions to historical sites such as the slave monuments at Atorkor in the Keta District, tourist destinations and the Keta Sea Defence site. CEANA besides its development advocacy, in the past, had made substantial material donations to institutions in Ghana, including 3.4 million dollars medical equipment gift to nine hospitals in the Volta Region and the Republic of Togo and an electro-cardiogram and hospital supplies to Cardiology Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The Association operates a scholarship programme for students pursuing secondary education in the Volta Region with plans afoot for a similar scheme in Togo.

Rotary Club International, Achimota Chapter, presented textbooks to schools in Tanyigbe, Klefe, Akrofu and Tokokoe, all towns in the Ho Municipality.