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