Kumbungu (N/R), Dec. 30,GNA - The Ghanaian Danish Community Programme (GDCP) has spent about 7.8 billion cedis in the provision of educational infrastructure and the extension of pipe-borne water to nine communities in the Northern Region.

The projects included six-bedroom girls' hostels each for the Kumbungu/Tolon and Pong-Tamale Senior Secondary Schools at the cost of 3.21 billion cedis.

The GDCP also constructed blocks of three classrooms, an office and a store each for the Kogni, Kpatuli, Choggu-Yapalsi and the Dalun communities at the cost of 3.69 billion cedis. Mr Alhassan A. Alhassan, GDCP Programme Coordinator, said this at the handing over ceremony of the six-bedroom girls' hostel of the Kumbungu Senior Secondary School at Kumbungu in the Tolon/Kumbungu District on Friday.

Mr Alhassan said the NGO had also extended six kilometres of pipelines from the Kamina Barracks to the Langa community and a similar five kilometres of pipelines from Duko to Janjori-Kukuo at the costs of 83.4 million cedis and 29.4 million cedis, respectively.

The beneficiary communities and institutions contributed 99.3 million cedis each towards the completion of the projects while the District Assemblies paid 49.6 million cedis. Mr Alhassan expressed the hope that the facilities provided would help to increase enrolment in schools and improve upon the quality of education in the districts.

He said a maintenance fund had been established with initial seed money to facilitate the maintenance of the projects. The NGO had so far also spent 247.5 million cedis on capacity building for Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Management Committees (SMC) and other programmes of the GDCP in the Tinkpansi Lebgimsim Sector.

One hundred thirty-five Traditional Youth Leaders, Community Based Organisations (CBO) and women associations have equally benefited from the capacity building programme. Mr Alhassan appealed to school authorities and the communities to take proper care of the facilities provided them and urged them to especially plant trees and hedges around the school buildings to protect them against rainstorm and other natural disasters. The chiefs and elders of the communities thanked GDCP for the immense assistance provided them and promised to take proper care of them. 30 Dec. 05