From Isaac Akwetey-Okunor.
As part of activities marking the annual 21 days Y’ello Care, Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), Ghana, has presented 300 made in Ghana school bags to some selected schools in the East Akyem Municipality. Staff of MTN annually take 21 days off their busy working period to participate in various community programmes dubbed “Y’ello Care”, which is aimed at giving back to society.
In the Eastern Region, the staff decided to observe the day with children of Akyem Asafo Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic Primary schools, all in the East Akyem Municipality. In all, 300 school children, who are arguably disadvantaged, and were selected from Class One to Six of the three schools, received a made in Ghana bag each at a separate ceremony.
Presenting the bags to the pupils, Mr. Isaac Antwi, leader of the Eastern regional team, said the company settled on the made in Ghana bags, in an attempt to drum home and whip up interest on the need for Ghanaians to patronise locally produced goods. He charged the children to use the bags as a point of positive change towards taking a keen interest in goods produced locally, since that was the only sure way to improve the socio-economic conditions of Ghanaians.
Mr. Antwi further tasked the children to emulate the good examples of the elderly people in their environments, and cultivate the habit of spearheading the development of their communities. The leader of the Eastern Regional Office of MTN finally urged the children to take their studies serious if they wanted to occupy very important positions, not only in their communities, but life in general.
Speaking to the Eastern File shortly after the presentation, Fusina Aliu, a Class Six pupil of the Roman Catholic Primary School, paid glowing tribute to the development role MTN is playing towards creating an enabling society for all. According to her, MTN, over the years, has contributed towards the development of the nation through the construction of school buildings, hospitals, and clinics among others, which makes the company the best in the area of corporate social responsibility.
To her, the bag, no matter its condition, has come at the right time, since most of them come to school carrying their books in their hands and on their heads, because they did not have bags to keep them in. She explained that most of their books, which took their parents months to buy, suffer damage particularly during the rainy season. An Assistant Headmaster of the Roman Catholic Primary School, Mr. Amarteype Jonas, disclosed that the bags would go a long way to motivate their children to learn hard, since most of them come to school without bags.
He raised serious concerns over the irresponsible attitudes of some parents in the area, and took opportunity of the occasion to urge parents not to shirk their duties of providing a good foundation for their children. The Assistant Headmaster appealed to MTN to come back to rescue them with a decent school building, since the children do not have sound and serene environments to learn, because of the state of the infrastructure. Mr. Antwi assured the management of the school of passing the information on to his superior officers for consideration.
