Education Minister donates to 4 institutions

The Education Minister, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, celebrated the Easter with children of three foster homes and inmates of a psychiatrist hospital in the Western and Central regions, during which she presented items and cash totalling about Gh¢12,000.

In the Western Region, she donated bags of rice, tubers of yam, bags of beans, boxes of indomie, boxes of fruit juice, other beverages and packs of sachet water to two foster homes, the Father’s Home Care Ministries and Jesus is King Foundation both in Sekondi, while in the Central Region, she donated similar items and two sheep to the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital. 

She also presented similar items to the Human Service Trust, a foster home in Cape Coast.

Other items donated were soft drinks, loaves of bread, toiletries and cash.

The minister, accompanied by the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Enoch Cobbinah, interacted with the management and children of the various homes and thanked the managers of the homes and the hospital for taking care of the inmates.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang explained that the donation was to put smiles on the faces of the children during the Easter season.

She said Easter was a season for sharing and she chose to share with the children of the homes, to sustain a habit began many years ago of thanksgiving during Christmas and Easter seasons.

Don’t confine inmates

At the Father’s Home which has 72 children, Miss Rosemond Yamoah, the mother of the home, thanked the minister for choosing the home for her charity work.

At the Jesus is King Foundation, Mr Samuel Bangura, who is the founder of the home, told the minister and her team that the home had 20 orphans and promised that the items were going to be used for the purpose for which they were donated.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang urged those operating foster homes not to turn the facilities into schools because that confined the children to the vicinity of the homes.

She stressed that there was the need for them to expand the horizon of the children by allowing them to attend schools outside the homes to be able to interact with other children.

Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital 

In the Central Region where the minister and her team were joined by the acting Direct-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Jacob M. Kor, the minister donated similar items and two sheep to the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital. She also donated similar items to the Human Service Trust.

At the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said ordinarily, the inmates would have spent Easter with their families but that was not possible because of their condition.

In response, the Deputy Director in charge of Administration at the hospital, Mr Godwin Pongo, thanked the minister for making the facility a beneficiary of the largesse.

At the Human Service Trust, one of the inmates, Esi Atta Panyin, received the items and cash on behalf of her mates and the home.