…Safe Child Ghana Salutes Minister
Safe Child Ghana, a non-governmental organisation with its primary aim of protecting the Ghanaian children from all sorts of injury has lauded a Deputy Minister of Transport, Hon. Dzifa Attivor for her humanely intervention to safe the lives of children at Weija who were dangerously scaling around the walls of the dam daily to access education.
“Safe child, as a child injury prevention organization wish to commend the Deputy Minister of Transport, Hon. Dzifa Attivor for promptly responding to relieve the plight of children of Ayigbe Town who had to scale the fence around the Weija Dam just to go to school”, the CEO of the NGO, Madam Unice Gifty Baabu noted in a press statement.
The CEO furthered that what excited Safe Child about the Minister’s intervention was the speed and alacrity with which the action was taken. This, the CEO explained was very rare in the Ghanaian society that mostly watched on and allow preventable disasters to kill innocent children day-in-day-out.
“The minister’s intervention coincides with Safe Child clarion call for preventive action in the face of death threatening situations especially of children, which is encapsulated in our campaign ‘Inform to Save’”, the statement remarked.
She recounted that the Daily Graphic, in its Friday, September 14, 2012 edition, carried a report of how 275 pupils from the Weija Cluster of Schools had dropped out of school as a result of the absence of a footbridge over the Weija Lake to give them access to school.
In addition, 1,200 pupils who live at Ayigbe Town, SCC, Old Barrier, Bortianor and Broadcasting, all communities on one side of the Weija Dam, put their lives in danger by scaling the walls of the dam daily to get to school.
The Deputy Minister swiftly went to the rescue of the children by first paying a visit to the area to assess the situation. She immediately after realizing the gravity of the problem collaborated with other relevant stakeholders in working out to secure Metro Buses to convey the children to their various schools.
The CEO of Safe Child said there was excitement at the Weija Cluster of Schools when two Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses arrived to convey the schoolchildren to their respective communities in fulfillment of the pledge the minister.
“Schoolchildren at Weija Presbyterian Primary and Junior High, Weija Methodist Basic School, HIPS Charity School, Weija Municipal Assembly JHS and St Joseph the Worker Primary could not hide their joy as they danced before entering their buses for home”, she noted.
The buses were led to the schools by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor. She was accompanied by the Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Jerry Akwei Thompson, the NDC parliamentary aspirant of the yet-to-be-created constituency, Gbawe-Weija, Ms Obuobia Darko-Opoku, and officials from MMT.
The move is a temporary measure Put in place by the government to address the situation where schoolchildren from six to 12 years scale the Weija Dam Bridge to get access to their respective schools whilst a permanent solution to address the problem, a 45-metre pedestrian (foot) steel bridge over the Weija tributary would be constructed.
Addressing the elated schoolchildren at Weija Presbyterian School, Ms Dzifa advised them to regularly join the buses at the aforementioned junctions at early hours in order not to miss them. “You must not be seen again climbing over the Weija Dam Bridge to come to school or scaling the fence to go home after school hours. You must always wake up very early in the morning and board the bus,” the deputy minister said.
Mrs. Baabu said the move by the Minister should encourage other public officials, corporate bodies, assembly members and who individuals who have the capacity to create safer environment for our children and other people to so.
