The Savelugu School for the Deaf is in dire need of a fence to protect the children from danger and more.
Youth Initiative for Africa Development (YIFAD) is a fully registered non-governmental, non-profit making organization in Ghana with its main branch at University of Ghana. This NGO has a desire to undertake this special outreach program dubbed “Outreach Program to Savelugu School for the Deaf, Tamale – Ghana”. This social innovative program aims at promoting the involvement of benevolent individuals and organizations in providing the needs of the physically challenged within the Ghanaian society. This program is scheduled to take place on Sunday 15th July, 2018.
1.0 Background Information of Savelugu School for the Deaf, Tamale.
Savelugu School for the Deaf was established in March, 1978. The school was initially set up as a unit under the Nyohini Rehabilitation Centre in Tamale but was subsequently moved to the Savelugu Middle Boarding School located on the outskirts of Savelugu. It has a kindergarten, primary and junior secondary sections. The school’s current population stands at 450 students with staff strength of 26 with 22 non-teaching staff.
Since then, the school has provided formal education to many hearing-impaired children, particularly from the three regions of the North. Poor infrastructure, delays in the release of subvention among others continue to impact negatively on academic work and the general wellbeing of the children. Most of the facilities handed over to the school during its inception have remained the same, although the school’s population has increased from eight (8) to four hundred and fifty (450) as at September, 2017.
According to the Head of the School, Madam Gertrude Dasah, the dining hall is now too small to contain all the children and as a result, the school runs a shift system for dining. She emphasized that they usually allow the little ones to take their meals before the older ones while most of the children stand to have their meals due to the lack of space in the dining hall to take more tables and chairs.
The headmistress bemoaned the lack of teachers’ quarters and how it was having adverse effect on academic and extra curricula activities. Out of the 26 teachers, only four are staying on the school premises and so the remaining teachers have to trek from Tamale to Savelugu each school day. During the rainy season, a lot of them are not able to get to school and this affects school work.
Like any other government school, the Savelugu School for the Deaf relies heavily on its suppliers to provide it with food items on credit basis. This is due to the delays in the release of subvention to special schools by the government.
According to the headmistress, these suppliers were now fed up with that arrangement and have threatened to stop the supplies. She therefore, reiterated a recent plea by heads of special schools to the government to address the bottlenecks in the release of subvention to special schools.
The Savelugu School for the Deaf is in dire need of a fence to protect the children from danger. The closeness of the school to the Tamale-Bolgatanga trunk road puts the lives of the hearing-impaired children at risk. Traffic on this road has increased lately and although there is a speed table and a signpost warning drivers of the presence of hearing-impaired children in the area, most drivers fail to slow down on reaching that point of the road. She further stressed that madmen and other intruders entered the school anytime, posing danger to the pupils.
The school authorities are mostly vigilant to ensure that no child goes close to the road, but the headmistress admitted that it was not possible to keep an eye on all the children at all times. She indicated that a fence would help confine the children and protect them from any danger.
In addition, the headmistress revealed that the absence of a fence had made it easy for some newly admitted children to escape from the school. Some of them run back home after their parents have brought them.
In a nutshell, to ensure national development, education must be part of every citizen’s
life including the physically challenged individuals in our communities since being a
physically challenged does not mean such individual’s mental faculties are dead.
It is in this regard, Youth Initiative for Africa Development (NGO) is looking forward to reaching out to these pupils on Sunday, 15th July, 2018.
YIFAD has a strong conviction that this initiative is laudable; however, it is weighed down by grave challenges. But as two heads in counsel break barriers, we believe if we come together on this initiative,nothing will be impossible to achieve.
For this, we humbly seek help from all possible and potential sources and we identify and consider your esteem contribution to it as an invaluable one. Our proposed budget indicates that the total amount neededto undertake this program will be GH¢18,650 which is approximately US $4,181.61.
We take this opportunity to kindly request you to contribute generously to the fund. Any amount is very much appreciated.
Believe in tomorrow.
Great futures start here.