Bank worker devotes 60% salary to needy children

Winneba (C/R), Dec. 28, GNA - Mr. James Annan, a 32-year old employee of the Barclays Bank in Accra has devoted sixty percent of his monthly salary to cater for the health and educational needs of needy children at Sankore, near Winneba.

Most of the children were brought back from Yeji through his instrumentality and currently he is sponsoring the education of 15 of them at the cost of 5.6 million cedis.

Sankore is a less developed fishing community where most of the parents find it very difficult to send their children to school either due to lack of interest in education or because of high poverty rate in the area.

Mr. Annan made his intention to sponsor the children known at an end of year party he organized on Saturday for about 200 disadvantaged children between the ages of two and fifteen years. Some relatives f the children also attended the party.

The children were feted with soft drinks, biscuits, fried rice and chicken amid music.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr. Annan, a citizen of the area, said it was only education that would help change the poverty level of the people, hence his determination to help the children to acquire education.

Mr. Annan said there were more children from the community who were being enslaved at Yeji at the cost of their education and therefore appealed to NGOs and other government agencies to help bring back such children home.

Madam of Efua Abam who said Mr. Annan settled her son's medical bills of four million cedis when he underwent an operation at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital last year, told the GNA that her son would have died. She commended Mr Annan for his humanitarian work. Other parents also expressed gratitude to Mr Annan and called on other well-wishers to emulate him.