By Juliet Aguiar DUGBARTEY
The Ahantaman Rural Bank PLC has donated two jumbo size 10,000 litres water tanks, totalling GH¢24,000, to Sankor Senior High School (SHS) at Sankor in the Ahanta West Municipality of the Western Region.
This is to ensure access to safe water, which is very essential to the health of the students. Hitherto, the students had to fetch water at the communities nearby for the kitchen staff and for their personal use. Among other repercussions, this affects their studies since they are always late for lessons.
At a brief ceremony, Chief Executive Officer of Ahantaman Rural Bank PLC, Mr. Benjamin Afful-Eshun, explained that the school is located in a new area, and has had challenges in previous years.
“We have been supporting the school from time to time. Already, the bank has constructed a kitchen, which is used by the domestic bursar and the team in preparing food for the students. We also have some of the scholarship beneficiaries in this school while those who have completed are pursuing their tertiary education at the various universities,” he added.
The donation of the tanks, he said, is in response to an appeal made by the school. “The students are writing their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and had to travel to other communities nearby to fetch water; and this poses a lot of risk to them, especially the girls,.”
Mr. Afful-Eshun pointed out that “though government is supporting Sankor SHS, it cannot shoulder all the responsibility. There is, therefore, the need for us to support as part of our corporate social responsibility and and more so as we commemorate the 40 years of the bank’s existence”.
He, therefore, appealed to organisations within the municipality and the region at large to support and develop the school.
The headmistress of Sankor SHS, Madam Otilia Akaba, added that the school has problems, including water and stable electricity.
“Although, we have a borehole here, we have power issue which does not help in pumping the water to the various locations in the school; and this has affected the kitchen staff as well as the students,” she said.
She added: “This, is a growing school and we need a lot of things; the tanks have made us heave a sigh of relief. We would connect them to the kitchen and the dormitory blocks to ensure frequent supply of water to all”.
“We are very grateful to Ahantaman Rural Bank for responding quickly to our request. We are appealing to other philanthropists and benevolent organisations to help us solve the accommodation problem. As the head of the school, I have to commute from Takoradi to this place every day. But look at the nature of road of the road!” she implored.
She concluded:“Our doors are widely opened to anyone who would like to support”!
