Regional News of Friday, 14 November 2008

Source: GNA

VSO presents 28 computers to Ghana Education Service in Wa

Wa, Nov. 14, GNA - The Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) on Thursday presented assorted items including 28 computers and printers valued at 56,000 Ghana cedis to the Wa Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service.

The items are to help promote information technology education among teachers and students. Some of the items comprising 5,000 textbooks and novels, furniture, sewing machines, filing cabinets, bicycles, aqua boxes containing hygiene products, tools, water filters and medical equipment were donated by the I.T Schools Africa, a United Kingdom Charity. Mr Robin Bone, Management Support Officer at the VSO and currently on attachment with the Wa Municipal Education Directorate is the brain behind the donation.

He said it had been his dream to help stock the Teachers Resources Centre in the Municipality with computers to enable teachers to acquire information and communication technology skills, to impart to children at school.

He said the lack of computers and basic learning materials, as well as hygiene products in schools, motivated him to appeal to charitable organizations and well-meaning individuals in the United Kingdom for the support.

Mr Abdul Aziz Mohammed, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, who received the items, expressed gratitude to Mr Bone and all other philanthropists in the U. K. for providing the items. He said the items would be used to develop the human resource base of the region in particular and the country as a whole. He promised to monitor the use of the equipment and appealed to the Municipal Directorate of Education to make good use of them to benefit the people.

Mrs Scholarsitica Gyiele, Wa Municipal Director of Education gave the assurance that the items would be used to advance the growth of education in the region. In another development, the Volta River Authority also presented a cheque for 300,000 Ghana Cedis to this year's floods victims in the Wa East District.

The assistance is to help mitigate the suffering of the victims, especially those who lost their parents and property in the floods. Alhaji Mohammed Erzuah Siam, Senior Community Relations Officer at the Northern Electricity Department who presented the cheque through the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr George Hikah Benson to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) said the assistance was part of VRA's social obligation to the people. He prayed that such disasters do not occur again, since the aftermath effects had always caused huge losses to the people and the state. Mr Benson thanked VRA for the assistance and promised to form a committee to take responsibility for distributing such assistance, so that it got to the real needy and affected persons. Alhaji Siam also briefed Mr Benson that four communities, Tanina, Ga, Poyentanga and Yapala on the Sawla-Wa Road would soon be connected to the national grid. 14 Nov. 08