Hundreds of children living in parts of the Central and Northern regions can look forward to receiving education for a brighter future. This is because the Multimedia Group through the Giving for Change (GfC) Project, under the auspices of STAR-Ghana Foundation (SGF) and WACSI is constructing classrooms in selected districts in the two regions to provide safer school buildings for pupils to learn.
Multimedia Group’s Classroom Project is one of several initiatives under the continental Giving for Change (GfC) project funded by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry. Among other objectives, the Giving for Change also seeks to, engender and promote development through self-help initiatives at the local community levels without having to depend on the central government or foreign aid in the wake of dwindling donor support globally.
Education Director for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District, Seth Emmanuel Panwum recounting a building disaster that killed six pupils noted, that the intervention by Multimedia’s audiences and clients to put up the school block will prevent further tragedies in the community. According to the Education Director, “this is a very wonderful project that Multimedia and STAR Ghana have brought to Breman Jamara, and I must say that we are excited because we have a serious deficit in terms of classroom infrastructure. So…by bringing this edifice here, in fact, it will prevent disaster’’. He was speaking during a site tour of the seven-space edifice at Breman Jamara D/A Basic School with the Education Directorate, traditional leaders, and global partners of the Giving for Change Project.
An estimated 700 pupils in the Central and Northern Regions are expected to benefit from the Classroom Project after completion.
The District Chief Executive for the area expressed excitement and assured global partners of the Giving for Change Project that every investment made into the Multimedia Group’s Classroom Project at Breman Jamara in the Central Region will be put to good use. Lawrence Edutuah-Asiaw exclaimed – ‘’God richly bless you. I am really grateful. But the assurance I will give you – putting up the project is one thing and utilizing it is another thing…..It is my duty to maintain it and that assurance I’m giving you – that whatever investments that is being made in the district, I am going to make sure one, we put it to good use and ensure a better maintenance culture to sustain the project’’, recognizing the impact of the project on his district.
The new Breman Jamara School is a three-classroom unit block with an ICT laboratory and library, a Staff Common Room and Headmaster’s office. It is being funded with cash and in-kind donations from cherished audiences and clients of the Multimedia Group Limited. Among them are the Forestry Commission, DBS Roofing Sheets, Israeli Embassy, Duraplast Ghana, Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority, the Planned City Extension Project, Tropical cables and many more. Also, a 94-year-old woman donated part of her monthly pension benefit to support the project.
JoyNews’ Senior News Editor Fiifi Koomson for his part reported, “we have steel benders who are offering to support; there’s a value there; we have the Forestry Commission giving us wood – about GHS50, 000 worth of wood; we have electricians coming in, we have tillers coming in, we have so many resources from different individuals, different companies just to support this whole project and enterprise’’.
Fiifi Koomson and the Classroom Project Lead at the Multimedia Group, Emefa Atiamoah-Eli, together with the DCE, briefed the delegation of global partners and other community leaders on the status of the project and its benefit to the people of Bremana Jamara. The partners asked questions mostly about the significance of the project to the district and how the Multimedia Group is ensuring accountability to all donors and stakeholders.
Gyaasehene of Breman Jamara, Nana Kwesi Ennin III committed to continuing to mobilize human resource in communal labor to ensure the completion of the project.
According to him “the children are aware of the ongoing construction. If we fail as leaders to provide the necessary support for this project to be completed, they will not forgive us’’.
STAR Ghana Foundation and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) are the lead agencies for the Ghana Chapter of the Giving for Change Project, with funding from Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry.