US Embassy sponsored 22 projects last year.

Kukurantumi (E/R), March 5, GNA - The U.S. Ambassador's Special-Help Programme last year, funded 22 projects out of an allocation of 70,000 dollars from the U.S. Embassy in Ghana. The projects were under education, health and sanitation, which the Eastern Region benefited from eight projects.

A U.S. Embassy representative in Ghana, Mr Jamar Alexander, revealed this, at the inauguration of a six-classroom block for Ofori-Panin Secondary, Primary and Junior Secondary School at Kukurantumi on Friday.

The project, which was started by the Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) of the school, was financed by the Ambassadors Self-Help programme at a cost of 39 million cedis.

Mr Alexander said the project was chosen for funding out of over 300 applications received from other organizations for assistance, due to the importance the U.S attached to the development of education. He commended the community, who provided the labour for the project, saying, "the completion of this project demonstrates that community organizations working with self-help partners can truly make a better life for themselves". Mr Alexander explained that, the U.S Ambassador's Self-Help Programme, which began in 1964 in Togo, had expanded to almost all African countries to enable the U.S Embassy give direct support to groups and villages that were taking the initiative to develop themselves.

He noted that, since the inception of the programme in Ghana in 1990, the American Embassy had made grants of over 1.3 million dollars, for three hundred projects spread throughout the country. The PTA chairman, Mr Samuel Danquah, who gave a brief history of the school said, the school was started by staff of the Ofori Panin School to enable their wards get access to basic school near the secondary school.

He said years later, the school, which was housed in the poultry division at the school's compound, had to be moved to the present location to be able it to expand to meet the large demands for admission from the community.

Mr Danquah said, despite series of contributions made by the parents, there was the need for assistance, hence the support from the U.S Embassy and thanked them for their swift response. He told the people that the school had become one of the best basic schools in the district in terms of performance during the BECE. 5 March 06