Cape Coast, Jan. 16, GNA- A 44-million cedi 'Telefood' project for the Cape Coast School for the Deaf was on Friday inaugurated by Miss Christine Churcher, Minister of State In-Charge of basic, secondary and girl-child education at a ceremony at the school.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is sponsoring the project, which consists of grasscutter rearing, a piggery and the cultivation of assorted vegetables as part of its 'Telefood and Growing Connections Project'. The project, is aimed at helping students of the school to acquire practical knowledge and skills, to enable them to earn their living after school, and it is at the same time, to supplement their nutritional needs.
Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Cape Coast, assisted in the inauguration of the project. In an address read for him, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Major (rtd), Courage Quashigah observed that grasscutter domestication and rearing had become popular and lucrative, with a lot of the youth taking advantage of it to raise their standard of living. He appealed to all stakeholders to provide the necessary technical assistance that would ensure the sustainability of the project to ensure that its objectives of providing income and food supplement as well as skills for the students was achieved.
Ms Churcher, said her ministry would collaborate with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to assist schools, which wish to establish farms to cater for their nutritional needs, as well as train interested students, who would want to take up agriculture as a profession. She pledged five million cedis from her MP's Common Fund to further assist the project in the school.
The Central Regional Minister, Mr. Isaac Edumadze, in a speech read for him also urged the management of the school to manage the project responsibly to ensure its sustainability.
The headmaster of the school, Mr. Robert Harrison Akyea, expressed gratitude to the FAO for its immense role in the setting up of the project. He said the school would establish a revolving fund for the Telefood project, whereby revenue accruing from the sale of the products would be used in expanding the project.
Mr. Akyea said the school, has been selected to run post- JSS vocational courses, such as animal husbandry and appealed to organisations and individuals for assistance. He also appealed to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to assist the school to complete work on some staff bungalows, which had come to a standstill.
