GREL PROVIDES KINDERGARTEN BLOCK FOR DUAHORODO (OCT 23, PAGE 20)

THE Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) has constructed a two-classroom kindergarten block for the people of Duahorodo, a farming community in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region, at a cost of GH¢ 40,000.
The new classroom block will save the young children from trekking long distances to attend school at Chavene, Eluazo and Akwadaa, at the mercy of the weather.
The company has already provided seven school blocks for Nsuaem, Subri, Anibil-Barmiankor, Nsein-Onzeanye, Kedadwen, Apimanim Number One and Chavene since 2006.
It is currently constructing a three-classroom block for the Avrebo Junior High School, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
At the handingover ceremony at Duahorodo, the Human Resource and Administrative Manager of GREL, Mr J.C. Garbrah, said since the 2005/2006 academic year, the company had provided 49 scholarships for students within its operational area to pursue education in senior high schools and universities.
He said the company had been organising vacation classes during long vacations for schoolchildren in the catchment areas since 2006, adding that this year more than 3,000 pupils participated in the classes.
Mr Garbrah said GREL provided top-ups for teachers in its three schools at Nsuaem, Tsibu and Chavene, adding that the GREL basic school at Tsibu had been topping in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Ahanta West District for the past four years.
The Chairman of the Association of Chiefs on whose lands GREL Operates, Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, noted with regret that the chiefs and people in the traditional areas who provided lands for the development of the rubber plantations in 1959/1960 did not benefit from the companies which started the plantations.
However, he said, in 2005 when GREL started providing people in the area with development projects, there had been gradual improvement in the living conditions of the people.
Awulae Agyefi said there were 84 communities in the eight traditional areas where GREL was operating and that the communities which were yet to benefit from the development projects should exercise patience since the projects would be distributed equally throughout all the traditional areas.
The Ahanta West District Director of Education, Mr George Jerry Hansen, expressed appreciation to GREL for its contribution towards education development in the district. He said the company was interested not only in the rubber plantations, but also in the mental development of children in its catchment area.
The Chief of Duahorodo, Nana Kwame Akro IX, said education was the light and wheels around which development revolved.
He, therefore, appealed to the parents in the community to reciprocate the good intentions of GREL by enrolling all their children of kindergarten age in the school and to ensure that they attended school regularly.
Nana Akro further urged the parents to pay particular attention to the needs of the pupils to encourage them to attend school to help lay good educational foundation for themselves.