Sekondi College Senior High School in the Western Region has been handed a new 24-unit sanitary facility by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Foundation to help address a long-standing challenge with hygiene and sanitation posed by the absence of a befitting lavatory.

The facility, which comes with a mechanized water system, replaces an old, dilapidated structure which had been in use of many years until it was abandoned due to the physical and health risks it posed to students. A situation which resulted in practices of indiscriminate and open defecation by some students.

During a short handing-over ceremony, Mrs. Guddey Abena Ampomah Kermah, Headmistress of the school, thanked GNPC for what she described as “a timely response to the school’s call for help”.

She said while the school is committed to providing the best of academic experience to students, it is constrained by a lack of resources to meet its growing needs, one that is exacerbated by the growing number of student intake each academic year.

“This will go a long way to improve on hygiene conditions of students in a time when the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic remain fresh on mind,” she added.

The Executive Director of the GNPC Foundation, Dr. Dominic Eduah, stated that GNPC’s focus on CSR is driven by a resolve to ensure that the gains made from Ghana’s oil activities benefitted Ghanaians. “This facility, like several others funded by the Corporation across Ghana, is necessitated by our mission to positively affect the lives of millions of Ghanaians across various sectors and communities,” he said.

As per usual, Dr. Eduah, reminded the school of the need to exhibit the highest standards of care in maintaining the facility to ensure it achieves the goal of serving many students in the future. The school’s authority introduced a Maintenance Committee of Teachers and students tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the facility is put to sustainable use.