NGO presents uniforms to AIDS orphans

Tuobodom (B/A), Oct. 5, GNA - Mr Davis Boamah-Asumadu, Director of Techiman Ahenbronoso Care Foundation, an NGO, has said that, although there was widespread knowledge about HIV/AIDS, yet, people's sexual habits had not changed much.

He noted that the increasing number of orphans in schools were obvious result of the situation.

Mr Boamah-Asumadu, also an Assembly Member for Ahenebronoso and Chairman of Techiman Urban Council said this when he presented school uniforms worth 1.5 million cedis on behalf of the Foundation to 22 HIV/AIDS orphans made up of 12 boys and 10 girls in various schools at Tuobodom, near Techiman.

The Foundation also paid the school fees of the orphans, in the kindergarten and JSS, ranging from 30,000 cedis to 40,000 cedis for the 2004/5 academic year.

The Ghana AIDS Commission funded the donation.

Mr Boamah-Asumadu asked teachers to intensify education on the pandemic as a subject for the effective control of the spread of the pandemic, saying, teachers had a vital role to play in the implementation of HIV/AIDS control measures.

Mr Boamah-Asumadu said the Foundation was caring for about 36 orphans of HIV/AIDS victims and urged the teachers to monitor the performance of the pupils and report to the Foundation for further assistance.

Mr Yaw Sarkodie, head-teacher of Tuobodom Local Authority Primary School, who received the uniforms on behalf of the pupils from Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA), Methodist, Roman Catholic and Local Authority schools, thanked the Foundation and the Ghana AIDS Commission.

He attributed the high rate of orphans in the area to the trafficking of women and girls to neighbouring countries, sprouting of drinking bars as well as the cultivation of tomatoes on commercial basis, which had attracted all shades of people with dubious characters to the area.