Pencils of Promise removes schools under tree in Adaklu

Hundreds of school pupils and their teachers in selected basic schools  in the Adaklu district of the Volta region can now carry out  their academic activities in a better and conducive classrooms, thanks to  the benevolence of a non –governmental organization, Pencils of Promise(PoP).

Due to inadequate infrastructure over the years, some of the school were compelled to hold classes under trees and thatch structures,  leaving the pupils and staff at the mercy of the weather. 

A total of seven communities benefited from various units of classroom blocks constructed by the NGO, Pencils of Promise with support from the  district assembly and the MPs common fund, at the cost of GHC  1.8million.

The projects executed within a record time of 4months, according to Mr. Freeman Gobah, country director of PoP, is aimed at boosting educational activities in the  area by increasing school  enrollment in the seven beneficiary communities.

He therefore charged  school  authorities to make good use of the infrastructure in improving academic performance of the pupils. 

A teacher in one of the beneficiary schools at Adaklu-Kpeleho, where the projects were commissioned, Ernestina  Akpe expressed gratitude about the project, saying it will help reduce the high  attrition rate among staff due to poor infrastructure.

“We use to be under sheds and whenever the cloud gathers, we have to earlier. Sometimes too, we get beaten by the rain. .Most  teachers have left [the school]  because of this problem. So we’re grateful this problem have been resolved,” she stated.

One of the thatch structures use fr classroom

Adaklu hit with Perennial Floods

A volunteer carrying a woman across flood waters

About 30 communities in the Adaklu district of the Volta region have been cut off from the rest of the district following heavy downpour last week which flooded roads and farmlands in the area.

Major roads linking the district capital; Adaklu Waya to Mafi-Kumasi, Ziope, and Agortime-Kpetoe were completely submerged by flood waters.  

The perennial disaster which is caused by the spillage of Waya and Tordze rivers in the area rendered the district capital, where the only Clinic and Senior High school are situated inaccessible to residents including students and public servants staying outside the district.

Togbui Lablulu Tegbeza V, chief Adaklu-Waya, said the situation nearly caused the lives of two pregnant women who were in labour in one of the adjourning communities last Sunday, but for the intervention of some youngmen in the area who have to carry a midwife shoulder high across the flood waters to attend to the women.

He noted that similar flooding in 2011 which claimed the life of one person compelled the late President Atta Mills to visit the area, who promise the construction of the main bridge across the river as well as the roads in the area.