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Nsawam (E/R), Mar 3, GNA - The Proprietor of the Rural Women Skills and Development Foundation Vocational Institute at Nsawam, Miss Dora Otema-Ayesu, has appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company to reconsider its billing system for institutions instead of classifying them as commercial users.

Miss Otema-Ayesu, a Ghanaian social worker in Hamburg, Germany, said the institute was established for "the poorest of the poor and under privileged girls in the society".

Speaking to Ghana News Agency at Nsawam in the Eastern Region, she said the institute was not profit making to warrant billing as a commercial venture.

She pointed out that it was rather the management, which spent on the students by offering them free accommodation, tuition, uniforms and medical care. She said getting some parents to pay 2,066 cedis a day for three meals provided for the students had become a problem. Miss Otema-Ayesu said the institute had established literacy classes for those without basic education free of charge and also catered for pregnant girls who could not be supported by their parents or husbands until they delivered and their babies were taken care of while the for electricity and mothers attend classes all free of charge.

Miss Otema-Ayesu said the institute had established a follow-up scheme where the graduates were either helped to secure gainful employment or helped to establish their own business. "We do not just throw them out of the school, we make sure that they are provided with working tools and materials including sewing machines", she added. She expressed regret that several appeals to the Ministries of Women and Children's Affairs and Employment and Manpower Development and some Departments for help have not yielded positive results. "The school is being run on the benevolent contributions from friends outside the country. Therefore to classify such an institution as money making institute to pay three million cedis a month as electricity bill and 1.7 million cedis as water bill for a quarter is too much for us to bear," she said. She invited officials of the two utility companies to visit the institute to ascertain things for themselves. 03 March 04