Management of Savelugu School for the Deaf has commended Kosmos Energy Ghana, a leading deepwater exploration and production company, for giving a school clinic to the special school.
The company renovated, equipped and upgraded it from an infirmary housed in a dilapidated building to the status of a clinic for the school to use in taking care of students.
The new facility has a sitting area, consulting rooms, air-conditioned ward with beds, and a studio to serve as an assessment centre for the students – a building also fitted with toilet and bathroom facilities as well as furniture.
Aside from the clinic structure, the facility has also been stocked with medical supplies for its use; the school hitherto had to travel several kilometres to access healthcare, and in cases of emergency.
Speaking at the handing-over ceremony, Director of New Ventures at Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr. Appia Kyei, said the company has a firm belief that the new facility will serve as a modern clinic and make it easier for the school to provide safe place for healthcare, treatment and an isolation-centre to mitigate any outbreak and curb spread.
Mr. Kyei said, as a responsible corporate citizen, Kosmos Energy Ghana decided to help elevate the standard of living for some Special Needs Schools in the country as part of its continuing social investment programme.
The decision to pay attention to special schools was also in response to the lingering impact of COVID-19 and external factors that had an unduly negative impact on the most vulnerable members of our society.
Following an extensive assessment of humanitarian needs across the country by Kosmos Energy Ghana, he said, the existing shelter at the school used as an infirmary was not the best; hence the decision to renovate it to the standard of a school clinic and stock it with some medical supplies.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Savelugu, Ayishetu Seidu, commended Kosmos Energy for demonstrating its corporate citizen identity, saying: “We are happy you have identified that government cannot do it alone, hence the need for corporate support”.
The health of children is very important, “Therefore, your intervention will go a long way to improve on teaching and learning in the school, and save the school authorities from transporting the children to and from hospital”.
The school’s Assistant Head Teacher, Ms. Fauzia Guonah, said as the school grows so does awareness of the need to give children who have special needs special attention.
The school admits children from Kindergarten to Junior High School with ages between four and 18, and children coming from all parts of the Northern Region and beyond.
Ms. Guonah noted the school clinic has come at a time when the school needs it most, saying: “In the absence of a school clinic, management of the school was faced with an uphill task of using its meagre resources to transport pupils to and from Savelugu Hospital daily, which is more than 2 kilometres away.
“When a student is taken ill, the whole day has to be spent at the hospital since t children have a challenge communicating what is wrong to them to the hospital team – we have to be present and interpret the sign-language, since nurses cannot communicate in sign-language,” she said.
With the school’s own clinic and support from Kosmos Energy, she said, nurses that posted to the clinic will be given lessons in sign-language. “We will give them opportunity to learn sign language and enable them to communicate directly with their patients instead of through interpreters.
“Aside from the clinic that we now have, other top priorities of the school are the boy’ dormitory, dining hall, technical and vocational training centre for students which also need urgent attention, and we hope other companies will also take these up,” she said.
She explained that due to the boys’ dormitory’s current state – without functioning washrooms, students and pupils are compelled to bathe outside at the mercy of the weather. “We also need the technical unit to train the children to ensure they step out of school with skills that will set them up in business.”
The school
The school health services are vitally necessary in order to provide first-aid and triage for illness and injuries; to provide direct services for students with special needs’ and to provide health counselling and education for students, staff and parents.
The Savelugu School for the Deaf was established in March 8, 1978 with 12 pupils – eight boys and four girls. However, the school has over the years seen an increase in enrolment; bringing the current student population to 346 comprising 196 males and 150 females, with 45 teaching and non-teaching staff members.
