AMERICAN Tanks and Vessels (ATV) Ghana Limited is funding a number of projects for the Jama Methodist Primary School in the Ga South municipality in the Greater Accra Region at a cost of $80,000 to improve the quality of education in the community.
The projects consist of a six-classroom unit, a teachers’ common room, a computer lab, a water reservoir for the provision of water and other social amenities for the pupils of the school which is the only public school in the area.
The projects form part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
The company decided to undertake the project because the pupils were confronted with inadequate infrastructural facilities, where they study under trees and under improvised tents made from sacks of flour.
The school, with a pupil population of 250, has no access to potable water and a number of the pupils have been diagnosed with bilharzia.
A visit to the school also showed that various companies have embarked on sand-winning activities on the compound.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the In-Country Resident Manager of ATV, Mr Ali Jassim, said in 2008, the company, which constructs vessels for gas and oil, was awarded a contract to build oil storage facilities at the Accra Plains Depot in Tema.
He said since the Director and Regional Manager of ATV, Mr William Thomas Cutts, is a Methodist, he decided to contact the Methodist churches around to help deprived schools in areas where the church operated.
Mr Jassim said after contacting the Methodist Church in the area, the company realised that the pupils were anxious to go to school but had no school facility and pointed out that the company was touched by what it saw and decided to raise funds from the Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, United States of America, to undertake the projects to help the school.
He said the company had also provided adequate equipment and facilities for a school nurse to help treat pupils with bilharzia, with the help of World Mission Possible, a non-governmental organisation from the US.
Mr Jassim appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to extend power to the school to enhance academic work there, adding that the water reservoir would also need electricity to operate.
The Head Teacher of the school, Mr Samuel Akuamoah Bamfo, said the company had also put in place measures to provide about 100 computers for the school and initiate an exchange programme between it and the Houston Christian High School in Texas.
He said the projects, when completed, would benefit the school enormously and expressed his appreciation to ATV.
He also appealed to other companies to emulate the company’s gesture.
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