Plan Ghana NGO Donates Furniture To Schools

Double School Desk

Plan Ghana, an educational non-governmental organisation (NGO), has presented furniture costing GHC32,000.00 to be distributed equally to three junior high schools at Suma Ahenkro in the Jaman North District.

The items, donated through the initiative of the Assemblyman for the town, Mr. Desmond Tutu, were 300 dual desks, 10 cupboards and 10 teachers’ tables and chairs for the local Suma Presbyterian JHS, Sumaman Experimental JHS and Suma Roman Catholic JHS.

Speaking at a mini durbar Mr. Joseph Appiah, acting Country Director of Plan Ghana, said the NGO’s fundamental goal was to improve the quality of life of children in the areas of survival, protection, development and participation.

He said Plan Ghana focused on deprived children in rural areas who without support might not be able to survive, let alone develop their full potentials to become responsible citizens.

Mr. Appiah said the NGO worked in over 500 deprived communities across seven regions in Ghana, executing its operations through funding from donors including the Western Union Foundation based in the USA.

“The contribution from the donors is used to create a favourable environment in which as many children as possible can grow to achieve their full potentials in life”, he said.

He said one of such funding support from the Western Union Foundation had been utilized to provide school furniture to basic schools in the Volta, Central, Eastern, Upper West and Brong-Ahafo regions.

Mr. Appiah said with funding of $ 36,000, Plan Ghana had supplied 720 sets of tables and chairs to at least 1500 school children, 18 tables and chairs for teachers/head teachers and 18 pieces of cupboards for storing learning materials.

Mr. Tutu said lack of school furniture had been one of the major challenges to effective teaching and learning in schools in the Suma Ahenkro electoral area.

He said the District Assembly built a classroom block for the Sumaman Experimental JHS but the school could not use the facility due to lack of furniture, adding it was realized that the same problem existed in all the schools in the town.

The Assemblyman said the situation therefore necessitated the initiative by his office to write to Plan Ghana for the assistance.

Mr. Twene Afram Denkyira, Headmaster of Suma Presbyterian JHS, expressed relief for receiving the furniture, saying that the school had been saved from a great burden because since the institution was established in 1968 it had never had such a valuable donation.

He said the school had student population of 118, comprising 37 in JHS One, 38 in JHS Two and 44 in JHS Three.

Mr. Denkyira lamented all of them were using just 32 dual desks, consisting of nine for the JHS One, 10 for the JHS Two and 13 for the JHS Three.

The Headmaster explained that instead of two students per desk, the seating was rather one desk for four students “so the situation made teaching and learning extremely difficult and ineffective.”

Mr. Kwasi Yeboah Asiamah, Headmaster of Sumaman JHS, said his school had the same challenge because 102 students from JHS One to Three, were using only 37 dual desks.