Nsoatre citizen commended for showing concern for children's education

Nsoatre (B/A), July 23, GNA - Nana Kwadwo Seinti, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, has commended Mr Solomon K O Boating, a citizen of Nsoatre in the Brong-Ahafo Region and founder of the local Presby-Dutch Children's Home for his initiative and foresight.

Nana Seinti made the commendation at the official opening of the 1.5 billion cedi Centre financed jointly by a Netherlands couple Mr William Hammink and Mrs Tina Hammink as well as the Oikonomos Foundation of Netherlands at Nsoatre on Friday.

The 300-population Centre, starting from Nursery one, two and three also runs Kindergarten One and Two and plans to add construct classrooms for its Primary pupils. 200 of the children at the Home are females and 100 males.

Presently the Home boasts of eight classrooms, two toilets, two bathrooms, three offices, two store rooms, a kitchen, mechanized water supply and outstanding modern playing equipment.

The financiers have also promised to make available a dining hall, six-unit classroom block, an office, a store, a library and a staff hall for the primary section.

Nana Seinti stressed the need for the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Department of Social Welfare to play their supervisory roles to ensure that the running of the Home conformed to their rules and regulations and urged Management of the Home to co-operate with the two bodies in its operation to enhance the smooth administration of the Centre while contributing to the development of education in the Nsoatre community.

Giving the history of the Home, Mr Boating, a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi said his great concern about the plight of needy children of Nsoatre.

He said in 1998 he organised some of the needy kids and appealed to organizations and churches both at home and abroad about his intentions to help make the future of such children bright.

Mr Boating said the Hammink family of Netherlands emerged the first to respond and came down to Nsoatre to see the situation for themselves, stressing that the eventual presence of a permanent building of the Home coupled with some of the needed amenities were enough to prove to him that his wishes, dreams and ambitions were gradually coming to reality. Mr Boating, in his 30s, and unmarried attributed the problems associated with Ghana's development to the lack of education and called for total support to give education to children if Ghanaians want the nation to develop and have better place for the children now and in future.

To ensure development at Nsoatre Mr Boating pleaded with people in the town to avoid a divided town, avoid violence and war, learn to accommodate the views of others and live in harmony with one another and also try to find remedies to problems but not fault about each other. Mr Boating capped his advice to the chiefs and people of the town by quoting the late Abraham Lincoln: "There is a time in every man's life when he comes to a conviction that, envy is ignorance and imitation is suicidal; that we should take our destiny into our own hands for better or for worse because, no kernel of nourishing corn would come to us but from the land bestowed upon us to till"

He announced amidst applause from the well-attended function that Mr. and Mrs. Hammink of Netherlands had expressed the interest of putting up their permanent residential buildings at Nsoatre. On his part, Mr. Hammink praised Mr Boating for displaying commitment and great interest for his community. The Netherlands family promised to release 20 million cedis each two years to sponsor the education of Mr Boating to pursue his Master's degree so that he could better continue his sacrificial and social services to his community and the nation.

Reverend H.A. Oppong, Brong-Ahafo Presbytery Chairperson of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, announced that the Netherlands couple had released 77 million cedis to the Church in connection with the construction of a dining hall for the school. Nana Kusi Appiah, Atipimhene of Nsoatre Traditional Area chaired the function.