Japan commissions GH¢75,000 project at Kibi School for the Deaf

The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Keiichi Katakami, on Wednesday, inaugurated dormitory block and a three-unit staff bungalow for the staff and students of the Kibi School for the Deaf at a ceremony at Kyebi.

The GH¢75,000 project was funded by the Japanese Embassy in Ghana under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project Scheme (GGHSP) of the Japanese Government.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Katakami said since 1989, the Japanese Embassy in Ghana had funded 18 educational projects in the Eastern Region under the GGHSP and assured that the Embassy would fund many more projects in future.

He encouraged the students of the school to learn hard and assured them that though they might be hearing impaired, as long as they continue to learn they would achieve their dreams of growing up to become brilliant men and women and contribute meaningfully to the development of Ghana.

The East Akim Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Emmanuel Victor Asihene, said within the past seven years, the Assembly had provided the school with a KVIP place of convenience and two boreholes fitted with iron removal plant.

He said the Assembly had also extended streetlights to the school compound and presented a set of furniture to the kindergarten department of the school.

Mr Asihene said through his own resources, he had purchased a corn-mill for the school and promised to that the contractor working on the construction of the kitchen and dining hall for the school would be compelled to complete the project before December.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Director of Special Education Division of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Mrs Victoria Donkor, thanked the Japanese Government for their support and called on other benevolent organizations to come to the aid of the school.

The East Akim Municipal Director of Education, Mrs Kate Agyemang –Badu, said many deaf children who are on the waiting list of the school could not be enrolled because of inadequate infrastructure.

Earlier in a welcoming address, the headmaster of the school, Mr Jordan Agbona, said the school, which was started in 1975 with a student population of eight now has an enrolment of 213 with more applicants on the waiting list.

Mr Agbona said only three teachers were being accommodated on the school compound making the supervision of the school children after school hours very difficult.

He said due to limitation of facilities, some of the students had to wait for their colleagues to have their meals first before the others and appealed for support to put up more structures.