GREL DONATES ELECTRIC POLES TO 4 COMMUNITIES (PAGE 26)

HE Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) has donated 50 low tension electric poles worth GH¢12,000 to four rural communities within its catchment area in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region for their electrification projects.
The communities are Chavene, Aluado, Breman and Komanfokrom.
Last year, the company made a similar donation to the people of Boekrom in the district to embark on their electrification project.
Speaking at a ceremony to hand over the poles to the communities, the Human Resource and Administration Manager of GREL, Mr Joseph C. Garbrah, said the electrification projects would provide the opportunity for schoolchildren in the communities to study in the night.
He added that the facility would also promote the setting up of rural industries that would help in the alleviation of poverty in the area.
Mr Garbrah said since 2005 the company had provided many development projects, including school blocks, for the communities in its operational areas.
The company, he said, had provided scholarships to brilliant, needy students from the communities where it operated.
He stated that the company was interested in education and for that reason, it had been organising vacation classes for schoolchildren in the communities free of charge.
Mr Garbrah added that last year, the company organised vacation classes for 1,400 children in the area for a four-week period, adding that more children would benefit from the classes this year.
He, however, stressed the need for peaceful co-existence to enable the company to assist the people in their development efforts.
The Paramount chief of the Nsein Traditional Area and Chairman of the Association on whose Land GREL Operates , Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, urged people in the communities where the company had its rubber plantations not to be confrontational in their demand for assistance.
He advised the communities, which had not benefited from the company’s development assistance to put down their priorities and submit them to the association for discussion with GREL for consideration.
Awulae Agyefi noted with regret that more than 88 communities in the affected areas had not benefited from the royalties the rubber company had been paying to the present and previous governments.
The acting President of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Council, Nana Amoako Agyebu, appealed to the company to release part of its land to the people of Chavene to enable them to build more buildings to expand the community.