BEGORO STUDENTS GET REPLACEMENT FOR BURNT ITEM (BACK PAGE)

ALL the 120 female students of the Presbyterian Senior High School at Begoro who had their personal effects destroyed when fire gutted parts of their dormitory on March 1, 2009, had been provided with the items free of charge.
The items comprising trunks, buckets, chop boxes, wax prints and dresses together with school properties, such as, mattresses, beds and roofing sheets, valued at GH¢20,000, were donated by Akosombo Textiles, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Fanteakwa District Assembly.
There was no human casualty because at the time of the disaster, the students were on mid-term holidays.
The provision of the items followed an urgent appeal for assistance by the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who visited the scene immediately after the disaster.
Presenting the items to the students and the school authorities on Thursday, Mr Ofosu Ampofo expressed gratitude to the donors for responding promptly to the needs of the students some of whom would be writing their final examination (WASSEC) next month.
He said such an assistance would reverse the psychological trauma that the students had to go through and expressed the hope that the affected students would do well in the examinations.
The regional minister, who also asked the Fanteakwa District Assembly to form a committee to come up with proposals on how to prevent similar disasters in future, was hopeful that the committee’s report would be ready on time.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr E. O. Charway, who received the items, assured the regional minister that each of the affected students would have her share of the items.
The girls’ dormitory, he said, would be renovated on time to enable the girls who were currently being sheltered in one of the structures in the school to re-occupy it.
Mr Charway also enumerated a number of problems facing the school such as inadequate classrooms and staff accommodation and lack of a fence to prevent intruders from entering the premises and appealed to the authorities for assistance.