Bedbugs invade Ashanti deaf school for years

Ashanti School for the Deaf have been under bedbugs attack for two years forcing dozens of the 595 children with varied degrees of disabilities loitering at nights while others are reported sleeping in classrooms.

The parasites have invaded the children’s mattresses along the seams, bed sheets and blankets, cracks on wooden slabs, wall cracks or crevices and chop boxes.

But school authorities say they are financially handicapped to fight the pest-ridden creatures, because it could not afford the charge of GH?1,200.00 required for the fumigation process.

Mr Ofosu Boachie, Headmaster of the school who expressed worry about the situation said there was nothing the school could do giving that the school’s only source of income is government feeding grants of GH?2.20 per pupil per day, which has, in recent times, been raised to GH?3.30, but has not been effected.

“It is the feeding grant we rely on. It does not come regularly, that is what we manage to do maintenance, buy fuel and fire wood and so on. We can’t even pay our creditors…they are always on us and we have to lie to them all the time,” he said.

“We also face serious challenges with the frequent light off, and some of the children ease themselves indiscriminately around the dormitories and the bathrooms at night because they cannot communicate to their colleagues to accompany them for nature’s call,” a teacher said on condition of anonymity.

“The situation becomes more serious when a child is sick at night, because how will he or she going to communicate or who can see the sign of he or she to find out what is wrong?” the teacher added.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), however, is threatening to disconnect power from the School for owing the company accumulated electricity bill of GH?80, 127.96.

A visit to the school by the GNA showed that dozens of the children sleep on uncovered mattresses placed on the bare ground with multiple cracks on the floor and walls.

A room designed for 10 three-in-one beds, contains about 20 beds, with many without slabs fixed on the beds compelling the children to squeeze themselves into the limited space.

Nearly 45 pupils are crammed into one classroom designed for 15 pupils due to acute deficiency in classrooms.

The classrooms are not carpeted, and the walls are equally not acoustically treated to repel noise as required in any normal school of the deaf and so interfere with teaching and learning.

“Their living conditions are horrible and pitiable, the dormitories and the classrooms are overcrowded. We have to put chop boxes in the classrooms,” another teacher told the GNA under strict sense of anonymity.

Meanwhile, health experts say frequent feeding of bedbugs on humans can disrupt people's sleep and make them irritable, and seeing bites might also cause emotional distress in some people.

Heavy rates of feeding can result in significant blood loss and eventually lead to anaemia, especially in malnourished children, health experts added.