New Edubiase (Ash), July 21, GNA - The Adansi East District Assembly has given the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) defaulters one month to pay back the loan or face prosecution.

Nana Kwaku Amoah, the Presiding Member of the assembly, said out of 120 million cedis given out as loans to beneficiaries under the PAF last year only 8.2 million cedis had been repaid to the assembly. Nana Amoah was addressing the second sessional meeting of the assembly at New Edubiase.

He said the low repayment rate of the loan had made it difficult for the assembly to extend the facility to benefit other people who needed it.

Nana Amoah reminded the beneficiaries that the fund was not for charity but aimed at assisting them to expand their businesses in order to reduce poverty in the district. Mr Dominic Yeboah, the District Chief Executive, announced that the Ghana AIDS Commission had released 225 million cedis to fund HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness activities in the district. He said the fund would be used to organise workshops to build the capacities of 21 school health co-ordinators from all the educational circuits in the district, form anti-AIDS clubs in schools and support 11 Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in their HIV/AIDS campaign programmes. He suggested the merger of two existing health insurance schemes in the district, the Civil Servants Insurance Scheme and the Adansi East Health Insurance Scheme to get one efficient mutual health insurance scheme in the district. Mr Yeboah commended the staff of the district hospital for their dedication that had improved health delivery in the district.

Church to provide laboratory services for Oku

Oku (Ash), July 21, GNA - Plans are underway for the Catholic Church to provide simple laboratory services, an effective communication system and facilitate establishment of a mutual health organisation for Oku and its environs in the Sekyere West District's portion of the Afram Plains.

This forms part of efforts by the Church to assist in the development of the plains in education, health and sanitation, the Most Reverend Peter Akwasi Sarpong, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kumasi, has said.

Delivering an address to mark the 10th anniversary of the missionary work of the Sisters of Saint Louis at Oku at the weekend, the Archbishop lauded the tremendous improvement in the conditions of living of the people since the Sisters went to the area with the assistance of the Church.

He said currently, the people enjoy good drinking water, quality health services and education that hitherto were absent. Archbishop Sarpong said these achievements had been made possible through the complementary efforts of World Vision Ghana, the Sekyere West District Assembly and the Ministry of Health and called for its sustenance.

He commended the Sisters of Saint Louis and Catholic priests and nurses, who had sacrificed their lives for the improvement of the lot of the people of Oku and surrounding areas for their sacrifices. Mr Thomas Edward Atakorah, the Sekyere West District Chief Executive, said the construction of standard school blocks in the rural areas underscored the importance the government attached to education. He also reiterated government's determination to improve roads in the rural areas to facilitate the carting of foodstuffs to the urban and marketing centres and said the plan was on course.

The DCE lauded the Reverend Father Patrick Lynch, the resident priest at Oku, for his untiring efforts in seeking the well-being of the people of the area.

Barima Abayie Ntori Nimpa II, the Kwamanhene, presented 100 school uniforms to needy pupils in the area.