commissioning of borehole for Our Lady of Lourdes SHS

 A borehole estimated at the cost of ten thousand Ghana Cedis had been commissioned for the Our Lady of Lourdes Girls Senior High School by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocesan Development Office. 

This brings to three the number of functional boreholes out of four to cater for a student population of about 600. However, two of these mechanized boreholes constructed by the then government are not able to function effectively due to unreliable electricity supply to the school.

The school which has a fence wall of one mile square, has been facing acute water situation for both teachers and students since it was moved to the new site which is quite a distance from town. 

This came to light at a workshop on Child Protection Policy organized for the school by the Catholic Diocese of Navrongo Bolgatanga.

The objective of the workshop was to conscientize teachers on actions that constitute an abuse to a student.

Organised under the leadership of the Catholic Bishop of the Most Rt. Rev. Bishop Alfred Agyenta the workshop also created a platform for students to identify the various forms of abuses, how they occur and the right channel to seek redress when their rights are trampled upon. it was sponsored by the Kindermissionswerk of Germany.

Speaking to Radio Ghana, the Headmistress of the Our Lady of Lourdes School, Rev Sister Agnes Bernice Adongo said her institution is the only single sex school in the Kassena-Nankana District of the Upper East Region that is captured in the Secondary Education Improvement Programme SEIP, yet it is not given much attention in terms of adequate logistics and infrastructure.

She lamented that the school’s only old rickety pick-up that was bequeathed to them by the late Bishop Abadamlora of blessed memory in 2008 has outlived its usefulness.

It only takes the benevolence of some master of the school with motorbikes to sometimes help students to hospital in the event of emergency.

Sister Adongo further lamented that the only dormitory block which accommodates about four hundred students, now houses over 600 and could worsen in the coming years considering the implementation of the free Senior High School flagship policy by government. 

She said quite worrying is how monkeys enter the school premises with impunity since there are no gates to the fence wall. Sister Adongo therefore used the occasion to appeal to government and other philanthropic organization to come the aid of the school.

A facilitator and a Diocesan team member on Child Protection and Safeguarding Programme, Rev. Fr Tommy Hayden of the St Patrick missionaries’ society took participants through the various forms of abuses.

He emphasized the need for all to join hands in championing the cause of children devoid of discrimination and abuse of all forms as enshrined in the child protection policy.

GBC                                                                END

Child Protection Policy workshop organized at St Johns Integrated Senior High Technical School-Navrongo UER

About 72 teachers and 714 students have benefited a from day’s workshop on Child Protection Policy.

The workshop which was organized by the Catholic Diocese under the auspices of the Most Rt. Rev. Bishop Alfred Adjenta of Navrongo-Bolgatanga and sponsored by Kindermissionswerk of Germany.


The Most Rt. Rev. Bishop Adjenta is noted as the first catholic Bishop among his colleagues to organize the child protection workshop in the country.

It was organized at the St Johns Integrated Senior High Technical School in Navrongo  Kassena Nankana District of the Upper East Region.

The aim of the workshop was to educate the teachers about the child protection policy document, why they are being educated about it, and the benefits the teachers, parents, students, community and the nation at large stands to gain from the policy.

In an interview with Radio Ghana, the Regional Manager, Catholic Education Unit of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese Rev. Sister Bernadine Pemi said, the Child Protection Policy is generally about the management of children, provision of safe learning environment for them while in school and how these management’s skills can be adopted at homes and in communities by the teachers, parents and guardians.

She disclosed that, some of the teachers at times are abusers themselves, citing canning as a correctional measure and sexual abuse by some teachers. She also proposed that teachers should also keep an eye on students in the company of volunteers.

This is because, some volunteer are child abusers in their respective countries and can take advantage of school activities such as excursions and site seeing to abuse the children. 

Sister Pemi indicated that, the core mandate of the policy is to create a conducive atmosphere for learning.

One the part of the students, three facilitators from the Diocese Rev. Father Tommy Hayden with the presentation brothers, a retired educationist of Sandema Senior High Technical School Patricia Yizura and the Programme Head of Social Welfare James Agambilla interacted with the students.

They showed them pictures with various forms of the abuses to identify in case, any of such abuses and encouraged the students to identity such cases, how each abuse is meted out to them and the various channels  via which they can report abuse to the appropriated authorities. 

Most importantly, the children were taken through the Child rights Act, Act 560 of 1998 and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003 Act 653

Rev father Tommy Hayden member of the St Patrick missionary Society. Advised the students to study hard and that it was the responsibility of the church to guide and protect them to become good future leaders.