The Rotary Club of Accra-SpeakMasters last week, organised a walk to kick start a campaign to raise funds to support the development of basic education and literacy in the Otano community in the Adentan Municipality in Accra.
Members of the club embarked on a 7.5 kilometre walk at the Achimota School Oval to create awareness about the value of education and particularly, to raise funds targeted at building a Kindergarten Classroom and a library Block for the Otano Bethel Presbyterian Basic School.
The leadership of the club observed that whereas the Otano Community, an urban rural settlement located right in the middle of the affluent East Legon suburb of Accra, pupils of kindergarten 1 (KG1) at the Otano Bethel Presbyterian Basic School do not have a classroom of their own and classes are held on a corridor of a JHS classroom about 500 meters away from the Primary School Compound.
The Club also observed that the 455 pupils and students of the Primary and JHS streams of the school did not have the benefit of a library facility, as a container which supposedly serves that purpose is a small mobile unit located outside the corridor and has no books.
At a brief ceremony which followed the walk, Club members had the opportunity of interacting with school authorities, stakeholders from within in the Otano community, and officials of the Adentan Municipal Assembly and the Ghana Education Service.
“We strongly believe that this is the project that will make school going and learning attractive and enjoyable for young children of school going age in this community,” said Rotarian Debbie Mangortey, the Club’s President-elect.
The President-elect said Rotary members throughout the world take action to make communities better. They contribute their time, energy, and passion to carry out meaningful and sustainable projects that promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, help mothers and children, support education, grow local economies and protect the environment.
The District Governor-elect, Dave Osei-Amankwah urged to members of the Crosswalkers, (a group of old Achimota School alumnus, who routinely walk on weekends and who participated in the Rotary Club walk), to join forces with Rotary to give back to a needy community ‘if they have the passion to use their expertise and resources to serve humanity’.
Rotarian Betty Blankson appealed to well-meaning individuals, corporate entities and non-governmental organisations who are touched or motivated to support the course being charted for the Otano Community to feel free to approach the club through rotaryclubofaccraspeakmasters@
Present at the ceremony were Madam Vivian Owusu, Head teacher of the school, Madam Charlotte Asare Nyarko, Deputy Director of GES in charge of Monitoring and Supervision, and the Rev. Emmanuel Sowah, the Presiding Elder of the Bethel Presbytarian Church, Otano.
In the course of its two years of its existence, the Rotary Club of Accra-SpeakMasters has reached out to various communities in and around Accra with a variety of services, the most recent of which are the donation of 130 menstrual cups to students and teachers of the St. Peter’s Catholic Basic School in Englesie Amanfrom; Donation of a Polytank to the JoyKol Ophanage in Gomoa Fete; a collaboration with the Rotary Alumini, to donate books, bags, lunch boxes, stationery to children at the Gomoa Kakraba Ophanage and Collaboration with other Rotary and Lion Clubs to execute the Amedzope Health Screening and blood donation Project.