Chinese societies support Akuapem School for the Deaf

The Akuapem School for the Deaf situated in Mampong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region of Ghana, on Saturday, July 8, 2017, received a donation from the Ghana Association of Chinese Societies (GACS) and the China Chamber of Commerce.

The support came to the disadvantaged school for the deaf in the form of ten brand new desktop computers as well as a whole day’s medical outreach screening for students, teachers and nearby residents of the community.

In view of this, the members of the GACS visited the Akuapem-Mampong community with an 11-member team of Chinese medical experts including nine doctors and their medical equipment for the purpose of screening for health issues in the school.

‘’As a business society in Ghana, the GACS have used every occasion to represent the fraternity between China and Ghana, and we will continue to build and nurture that relationship for our mutual benefit through our corporate responsible donations such as today, and the continuous provision of employment opportunities to so many young Ghanaians for as long as we remain and do business in Ghana’’, said, Mr. Tang Hong, chairman of the GACS during the donation ceremony.

"The Akuapem School for the Deaf needs support in teaching and learning'', he continued, ''and we are here to give it to them because it is our duty to support the underprivileged in society’’.

Mr. Tang Hong, also the Chief Executive Officer of the CAITEC Group of companies who praised Ghana government for a good business environment, added that they are donating the computers to the school as a corporate social responsibility with the hope that it will help to improve the quality of education and life in the beneficiary community.

‘’We also hope that our gestures of friendship with the communities such as we are doing today, will add to the deepening friendship and relationship that exists between our two great countries - China and Ghana’’.

Mr. Goodluck Akuffo Kpeli, an Assistant headmaster of the school received the donation on behalf of the school and expressed excitement and gratitude to the Chinese society of business people and their medical team in Ghana.

The Akuapem school for the deaf established 50 years ago, has a student population of 418 and enroll students from primary school to Junior High School from all over Ghana.

After the donation of computers, the Chinese medical team set up in various departments and specialties, using classrooms as makeshift consulting rooms to screen the hundreds of school children, teachers, and community members who availed themselves to the free medical exercise.

A member of the Chinese medical outreach team who spent the entire day on health screening in the community, Optometrist Dr. Surina Zhang painted a grim picture of her findings in her department.

’’Out of 120 children whose eyes I screened, almost 60 have very serious problems. The children here are not only deaf, some of them are going blind. Some have congenital problems. Some need to do surgery, and some need medications and others need further examinations. Some of the children are going blind, but they don’t know. As doctors, we help by identifying the health problems among the children here. At first, they didn’t know but now they know the help they need, and I hope they get help from the government or society’’.

The Chinese medical brigade is based in the LEKMA hospital in Accra which was built in 2010 by the Chinese government and donated to the Ghana government.

The team has spent five months out of its one-year rotational tour of Ghana and they will continue to carry out many medical outreach programs in various deprived communities in the country until the end of the tour later this year.