CANADIAN FIRM SUPPORTS GHANI SCHOOL (PAGE 11, JUNE 23, 2010)

A CANADIAN-based company, Eagle Communications Filming Company, has collaborated with the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) to support the Gnani Basic School in Yendi in the Northern Region.
The company provided GH¢11,370 to fund the construction of three rainwater harvesting tanks for both the primary and junior high sections of the school.
This is to ease the water problems facing the pupils of the school and inhabitants of the community. It is also to promote the health and nutrition of the children.
The tanks, which are being constructed by Duraqua Company Ltd (DCL) under the supervision of Tuma Kavi Development Association, will each contain 30,000 litres of water. This is enough to serve the pupils and community members during the dry season.
At a ceremony to cut the sod for the project, the Country Director of CCFC, Mrs Sanatu Nantogma, said the provision of water to schoolchildren was aimed at promoting hygiene in schools, adding that the lack of water made it difficult for children to practise regular hand washing.
She also explained that when water was available to children, it decreased their vulnerability to sanitation-related diseases because of increased hygiene.
Mrs Nantogma further explained that the CCFC had chosen to provide rainwater tanks because they were less costly and more appropriate for communities where underground water was low, thus making it difficult for the sinking of boreholes.
She said the CCFC had so far constructed 104 rainwater harvesting tanks for various schools and health centres in the Northern Region.
The Vice-President of the CCFC-Canada, Ms Carol Froom, said the organisation was committed to supporting the growth of children all over the world because the future depended on them.
She also noted that children in developing countries needed more support because they were the most vulnerable due to the retarding environments they found themselves in.
The Project Co-ordinator of Tuma Kavi, Mr Jonathan Nasona Zakaria, said aside these water tanks, the CCFC had also provided $32,000 to finance the construction of a three-classroom block to serve as an Early Childhood Development Centre for the children of Gnani.