Abura Dunkwa (C/R), July 5, GNA - The Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese Distric t Assembly has set up an Education Endowment Fund with GH¢50,000 as seed money to support education of the brilliant but needy children in the District. Mr I.K. Akyeampong, District Coordinating Director, who announced th is at an encounter with some school children from the area, said the Assembl y had allocated GH¢1,500 for Science Technology and Mathematics Education

(STME) clinic in the District this year.

Mr Akyeampong stood in for the district Chief Executive (DCE), Madam

Aba Adusa, in the encounter organised by the children from Plan Ghana sponsored schools in the District to know what the Assembly had in store for them. The encounter was a follow-up to the celebration of the African Unio n Day of the African child held on June 16, 2010 on the theme "Budgeting fo r Children's Rights". Mr Akyeampong said the Assembly had invested the chunk of its income in improving education and health facilities to ensure that the needs of children in the area were well catered for. Madam Aba Hagan, Presiding Member of the Assembly, dilated on the importance of education and said with that in mind the Assembly would not

relent in its efforts to promote it.

Mrs Grace Adu Appiah, District Director of Education, reminded paren ts that it was only education which could reduce the poverty in the District so they must invest in the education of their children. Mr Sulemana Gbana, Mankessim Programme Area Manager of Plan Ghana, a

child centred community development organisation urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to target children in planning projects .. "Projects must bring some development into the lives of children", t he Manager said. He urged the Assemblies to involve children in the preparation of district budgets, saying that adding inputs from children into the budget s would bring about a closer working relationship and understandings betwee n children and their Assemblies.

"Opportunities must be offered over future leaders to know the direction of the country", Mr Gbana pointed out. Questions posed by the children centred mostly on the ICT education and lack of computers in their schools. The children also expressed concern about the high level of poverty in the District and appealed to the Assembly to take steps to rectify it.