Stories from Isaac Akwetey-Okunor
The Headmistress of the Akropong School for the Blind, Madam Mahela Narh, has urged Ghanaians to cultivate the spirit of giving, since there was more blessing in giving than receiving. . Her call to Ghanaians came on the heels of a donation which included bags of rice, oil and boxes of Indomie instant noodles made by the Delhi Public School (DPS), a Tema-based private school,the recently..
The donation was in conjunction with Young Educators Foundation (YEF), a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to children’s education in Ghana, and organisers of the Spelling Bee competition.
An additional amount of GH¢2,700, which included GH¢1,500 as the prize money for winning the top three schools positions by DPS and Ecobank Junior Saver Account for Vishal Thakwani, 1st runner-up and three others from the school.
The three – Samuel Boateng, Emmanuel Asamoah and Princess Mensah – distinguished themselves to the delight of the organisers during the Spelling Bee competition, which is a local version of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the USA, a literacy programme which helps children to improve their literacy skills, whilst building their confidence.
In an interview with the Eastern File, Madam Narh said human beings should not live in isolation, but rather fly in the wings of others, hence it was incumbent on everyone to support one another, and further described the donation, notwithstanding previous ones, as most touching, wonderful, and worthy of emulation, considering the spirit of the benefactor.
The Headmistress of the school was quick to ask: “How many children can do this, especially in this era when we say each one for himself God for us all? So for this young boy to say no, let me donate my award to my physically challenged counterparts, is something so wonderful and touching.”
According to her, she was personally challenged by the kind gesture of the 12 year old boy to also go out there to better other people’s lives, in order to put smile on somebody’s face, and called on Ghanaians to put smile on other people’s faces.
Information available to the file reveals that since the inception of the programme, no physically challenged person has participated, making Ghana achieve another remarkable feat.
On their part, the management of DPS and 1st runner-up hinted that the gesture was to honor the three spellers from the school, who also participated in the 7th edition of the Spelling bee competition, which took place on February 2, this year.
The young philanthropist who was accompanied by his family and management of DPS said, he was motivated to present his prize to his counterparts following their brilliant performance.
“I was really shocked and surprised with the performance of these physically challenged children who by far and large performed better than the children with physical advantage”, the young boy hinted.
According to him, despite the keenly contested competition, the three children were able to reach the round of 16 after so many number of rounds at the expense of those who have what it takes to reach but could not, hence the presentation to encourage them to do more.
He explained that, this year’s competition was more difficult than the previous events and Ghana has made history of 21 and above rounds which was made by DPS and also proud that these physically challenged children have done so much than the children who were not.
Thakwani further called on children who are not physically challenged to learn from the performance of these physically challenged who are much dedicated and serious to their school and studies.
The stage seven student of DPS finally called on government and key stakeholders in the educational sector to attend to the needs of these physically challenged children to make their stay in school not a curse but a point of change in their lives.
To him education was a fundamental right of every child and therefore must be made easy and accessible to every child irrespective of the person’s socio-cultural and economic status in life or society.
David Raj, the Principal for Delhi Public School (DPS) said management of the school decided to join the worthy of emulation and kind gesture of their student because they were surprised at the performance of the three physically challenged children who participated in the just ended The Spelling Bee (TSB) competition.
Re-echoing the observation of the headmistress of the school, the principal of DPS reiterated that, the gesture of young Thakwani was beyond description and on behalf of his school promise frequenting the Akropong School for the Blind.
“What our student as well as management has done today was just the beginning of better things to come since we are going to becoming here very often to share what we have with these disadvantage children in society through no fault of theirs,” he mentioned.