Agona Swedru, Aug 25, GNA - The President of the Friends Club, a welfare group at Agona Swedru, Mrs Jemima Kitoe, has appealed to the government to rehabilitate roads in township to befit the planned municipal status for the area.

She said vehicles could not ply some of the roads while residents found it difficult using them especially during the rainy season. Mrs Kitoe made the appeal at a get-together organised by the Club as part of the activities marking the weeklong Akwanbo festival of the Chiefs and people of the area at Agona Swedru. She welcomed the promise by President John Agyekum Kufuor to raise the status of the District to that of Municipal during his recent visit to the area this year.

Mrs Kitoe stated that attention should be given to roads and sanitation in the area to ensure environmental cleanliness to avoid an epidemic.

She called on the Agona District Assembly to check the construction of unauthorised structures to ensure proper town planning and praised the government for the provision of social amenities such as clinics, schools and traffic lights to give the town a facelift. Ms Alberta Bruce, a final-year student of the University of Education Winneba and a member of the Club urged parents to ensure proper education for heir children since that was the "property" they could bequeath to them.

She urged parents to encourage their children to study very hard to enable them to become successful in future instead of just roaming the streets especially during vacation. Ms Bruce appealed to Chiefs to enact by-laws to stop underage children from selling iced water, tomatoes, pepper and fish during school hours.

Mrs Christiana Opoku Bamfo, an Executive Member of the Club, appealed to the youth to get involved in premarital sex to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS, which was spreading like "wildfire" and to assist in the crusade against the disease.