Airtel Ghana, through its flagship sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility programme- Airtel Touching Lives has commissioned a three unit classroom block for Dubila primary school in the Bolgatanga East constituency of the Upper East region.
Pupils of the Dubila primary school usually commute over a distance of 6 kilometers to another community in the Bongo district to continue primary 4, 5 and 6. The three unit classroom block which was started years ago could not be completed and hence compelling the pupils to access upper primary in a faraway community.
The abandoned structure was therefore adopted by Airtel for completion following the filing of nomination by the Member of Parliament for the area Dr. Dominic Ayine as part of the beneficiaries of season 3 of Airtel Touching Lives TV series programme.
Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Airtel Mrs. Hannah Agbozo said the initiative by her outfit is one of many interventions the company has offered to some groups and communities in the upper east region.
According to her, Airtel as part of this CSR has adopted many schools in other parts of the country and visits those schools frequently to support them with teaching resources and other logistics. She added that in the Upper East region, basket weavers have also been supported in this particular initiative.
Mrs. Hannah Agbozo noted that education is a cardinal pillar in Airtel’s CSR strategy and one of the areas the company is committed to touching lives since lives touched through education can make broad and long lasting impact from the individual level through families and communities to the national level.
“It is beyond any doubt that Dubila deserved this. We have upper primary children who would not be older than 8 years travelling 6 kilometers to access upper primary education and when we got to know about the case, there was no room for any discussion because it was something we felt committed to do.” she said.
She prevailed on parents in the community to ensure that children make effective use of the facility in order to better their academic laurels.
An obviously elated Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga East constituency Dr. Dominic Ayine expressed enormous gratitude to Airtel for the support. He explained that the decision to turn to the telecommunications network for support to construct the classroom block was borne out of pain when he came across two school children in 2012 walking over a long distance to another community to attend upper primary.
According to him, a promise made the community in a campaign message kept him focused to finding a solution to the problem of unavailability of an upper primary block in that community and hence the decision to be creative and find other sources of funding when it was evident that his common fund allocation could not raise the structure and other public sources could not help.
The pupils of the school also received school uniforms and bags from Airtel.
By: Azongo Albert | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
