Dutch couple assists deprived girls to acquire vocation at Sanka

Sanka (C/R), Aug. 30, GNA - A Dutch couple who said they were attracted to Ghana due to the country's political stability, good infrastructure and friendly people, has constructed a GH¢290,000 hostel and a multi-purpose building for the 93Mother of Good Advice" Vocational School at Sanka near Elmina in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality.

The couple, Mr and Mrs Boudewijn Muurmans, commissioned the project which has a large dinning hall, a kitchen, general room and dormitories with toilet and bath houses attached, at Sanka on Thursday to help enhance teaching and learning at the School.

The School initiated in 2001 by Ms Esther Rhule, who is also the headmistress, to train and equip street and destitute girls with employable skills including soap making, tie-and-dye making, cassava processing and sewing, has now been converted into a four-year vocational and technical training School.

Subjects offered include fashion, cookery, social studies, integrated science, mathematics and English Language.

Mr Muurmans in an address, indicated that it was their contribution to secure a better future for the girls who are mostly deprived and from poor homes, adding that it was his desire that they become self employed after school.

Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Central Region Minister, noted that the government appreciates the complementary role of the private sector as well as philanthropists to enhance the lot of the youth and called for more support from donors for the educational sector.

She said the elderly had the responsibility to serve as role models for the younger generation to help shape their future and urged the students to concentrate on their studies and not to focus on acquiring certificates alone but also aspire to reach greater heights.

Mrs Benyiwa-Doe urged them to eschew laziness, truancy and other negative tendencies that would jeopardize their future, while tasking the teachers to be committed and devoted in nurturing the girls as their own biological children.

Ms Rhule thanked the French and the Dutch governments for their infrastructural support and the couple for helping to expand the school and also expressed gratitude to the chief of the town for releasing land for the school.

She said she was moved by the plight of the deprived girls and offered to train them to give them hope for the future, hence the establishment of the school.

Ms Rhule said the first batch of six students presented for the NVTI certificate last year, all passed with distinction and added that more subjects like ICT, business studies, home economics and visual arts will be included soon.

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, The Most Reverend Palmer-Buckle, regretted that children were gradually being left out and marginalized and asked that society goes back to the Ghanaian culture and educate children informally right from the beginning.

He stressed the need for Ghanaian cuisines to be promoted to facilitate the growth of the economy.