In The Name Of God, Let's Help This Boy

In the name of God and Allah the merciful, I am appealing to all forumers to do something once in this forum to show that, we are all not a bunch of talkers but patriotic citizens who want the best for our country. Though we might disagree on the method to achieve that goal, we all want what is best for our country. This is a story about a Kojo Njorfuni,a thirteen year old boy crippled by the negligence of the Ministry of Education and to a larger extent, the government of Ghana.

This boy needs a lot of medical attention and the poor father cannot provide it, the government whose negligence caused this is not helping either leaving this boy to live in squalor with bedsores all over his crippled body. For the moment, I am appealing to the parents of Kojo and those who care about this boy to set up an account in Ghana and provide forumers the needed information about the Bank's name, Account and routing numbers. Forumers should do their best to contribute at least twenty dollars each towards the care of this boy. Those people in Ghana who are financially capable should also help in contributing towards this fund.

I am also appealing to Lawyers like Nana Lithur and those human right lawyers to file a compensation claim against the Ministry of Education whose negligence caused this boy's suffering. As human beings, we all ought to be ashamed about the way we treat our sick and disabled people. How can some Politicians STEAL our money and can't even in the name of God or Allah come to the aid of people like Kojo Njorfuni? We are quick to pay settlement debts to rich people and can send 3 million dollars to Haiti Earthquake victims but we can't help people like Kojo and poor old people left at our hospitals to rot because they have no money to pay for their care? Where is our conscience as a nation when we can neglect the poor, young and the old but can give money to corrupt powerful politicians whose stock in trade only is the 'old boyism'?

Somebody in Ghana, the radio presenter who is in the forefront of Kojo's mission of fairness should help Kojo's father set up a bank account and publish it in this forum including the bank routing number so that some of us can contribute something to this suffering boy.

This appeal goes to all forumers to help financially whatever they can contribute to help this boy. Don't let us just talk about this and forget about it. The webmaster should follow up on this story and we need people in Ghana to help set up a fund raising account and publish the information in the forum. This is a challenge to my forum friends to come to this boy's aid.

BELOW IS KOJO NJORFUNI'S STORY;

"The Banda Tragedy"

"Njorfuni Wajah did not go to farm on Friday, November 21, 2008. Quite apart from the fact that the dry season had set in and there was not much work to do, Friday is Njorfuni’s “bad day.” For many people with similar traditional beliefs, such days are sacred; they neither fish nor farm. On that uneventful morning, Njorfuni Wajah decided to meet a friend at the market square of Banda, a town in the Krachi West District of the Volta Region. His son, Kojo, had eaten his breakfast of rice bought from a nearby vendor and left for school. Sahadatu Ibrahim, a senior high school leaver, was the class three teacher of English Arabic Primary School in Banda in November 2008. There are only two trained teachers in the school – the headteacher and his assistant. The head teacher does not teach so the fate of the children of this school is left in the hands of some pupil teachers and volunteers from the community. The class three teacher had just finished marking the class register and gone to place it in the office when the unexpected happened.

“It took all of us by surprise,” says Yeyie Sei Selisah, the assistant head teacher. “It had not rained in a long time. Neither was there a storm that day. All we saw was that the walls collapsed.” Why the building collapsed or how it collapsed, however, did not matter. What mattered most were the lives of the pupils, as teachers and older pupils made frantic efforts to rescue the victims. They were swift, but too late to save all of them.

One pupil, Master Godwin Ayensu, who sat near the collapsed wall, died on the spot, while another pupil, Sumaila Labil, fell into coma. Others, including Kojo and Sumaila, had to be rushed to safety. Unfortunately for the children, the road from Banda to Krachi was (and still is) very deplorable and the absence of an ambulance meant that they had to make do with an equally deplorable benz bus. When Njorfuni Wajah heard that his son was among the children injured by the falling classroom wall, he made straight away for the Banda Health Post, where he was told that the children had been transferred to the Krachi Hospital. “Kojo did not look injured. No part of his body was bruised, and since he was not crying, we thought his was not as serious as the rest. For three days, the doctors saw nothing wrong with him, except that he said he could not sit or stand,” Kojo’s father recounts. “It was on the third day when I pressed my hand against his back that I realised his backbone had a problem.” Health authorities said the extent of injuries sustained by six of the children could not be treated there so they referred Kojo, together with five other pupils, to the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho. But the Krachi Hospital had no ambulance so they had to send for an ambulance from Ho. The ambulance arrived, after four days, the seventh day after the accident. Sumaila was still unconscious."

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas