Kongo (UE), July 6, GNA - Mrs. Vivian Anafo, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Talensi-Nabdam in the Upper East Region, on Monday commended National Service personnel working in the District for their sacrifices and willingness to serve communities in the district.

Mrs. Anafo made the commendation at a programme organised by the Talensi-Nabdam District of the National Service Scheme at Kongo in the Upper East Region on the topic "The Impact of National Service". The DCE noted that but for the Scheme the human resource needs of the District would have suffered and indicated that the personnel of the scheme had filled the gaps that would have been left vacant. She stated that the service personnel posted to the area were doing very well, especially in the area of teaching, and noted that but for the National Service personnel most of the classrooms would have been without teachers.

She, however, appealed to the Secretariat to post more service personnel to the District and said the District Assembly was ever prepared to support them. The DCE, who also gave a talk on the importance of education to the students, entreated them to take their studies seriously and said the best thing they could acquire in the world was education.

Mrs. Anafo told the students that their future depended largely on their education and advised them to desist from spending much of their time watching movies at the expense of their studies.

The District Coordinator in charge of Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS, Mr Emmanuel Kob-Puo who gave a talk on "HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health Management", indicated that in 2009, the District health Directorate recorded 67 HIV positive cases and said between January and March 2010, they had so far recorded 15 positive cases all from the Nangodi-Kongo sub-district, most of whom were pregnant women. He indicated that findings from first and second cycle schools in the area revealed that majority of the school children were HIV positive, and entreated the students to either abstain from sex or use condoms. Mr Francis Sebo, an Administrator of Social Services of Holy Redeemers Parish of Kissimmee, Florida in the United States of America, admonished the students to take their studies seriously.

He pledged to sponsor 20 students from the Kongo Senior High School who would excel to either tertiary or training college level. The District Director of the scheme in charge of Talensi Nabdam, Mr. Mike Zuri, told the service personnel that the Scheme offered them the greatest opportunity to serve Mother Ghana apart from the experience they also acquired from it.

The service personnel shared their experiences and challenges. They indicated that they had acquired enough experience to enable them to go into the job market and expressed the hope that it would help them in other future endeavours. 06 July 10