The Garden City Special School serves persons living with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Ashanti region, and parts of the Eastern and Western regions.
Faced with numerous challenges, the school receives support from various entities to provide extensive services to improve the conditions of children with special needs.
The Region Foundation and Help A Broke Foundation have collaborated to put smiles on the faces of the children.
According to managers of the special school, each of the over 190 children in the school feeds on Ghc5.50 a day, an amount which is woefully inadequate.
Headmistress of the school, Dr Roselyn Frimpongmaa Agyapong, said the situation has left the school indebted to food suppliers.
School authorities have to manage a feeding budget of less than Ghc6 for three meals daily for one hundred and ninety-two students whose ages range from seven to thirty-one.
Dr Frimpongmaa Agyapong is thus calling on the Ghana Education Service to fulfil its promise of raising the feeding amount.
“The amount we receive is not enough and it’s not helping us. GES has assured us but we appeal that they work on it faster so we can pay the bills that have been accumulated,” she said.
She also cited issues of overcrowding in several classrooms due to increasing number of admissions into the school putting pressure on the school’s limited facilities.
“The history of the school since its establishment in 1996 indicates it wasn’t meant to be a public institution. Since it is opened to the public, the numbers are increasing yet, the school hasn’t seen much renovation nor additional blocks to accommodate the large numbers,” she said.
The Region Foundation and Help A Broke Foundation donated assorted consumables and classroom learning teaching materials including textbooks and exercise books, pens and pencils.
The group, led by Delyn Opoku, Founder of Region Foundation, also donated creative arts items to improve the creative skills efforts of the school.
“We are a group of people with a background in rehabilitation, and we have recognised the importance of creativity and why it should be promoted among persons who live differently. And these kids are talented, which is more reason that they need guidance and publicity,” he said.
Co-founder of Region Foundation, Deborah Aku-Shika Mensah said the government’s support is critical to keep the school functioning effectively.
“Coming here and seeing the creativity here, they only need support and exposure to be able to excel in all corners of the country and for the school to survive. They are talented, and they need materials and the platform to showcase their potential,” she said.
Help A Broke Foundation Founder, Henry Akwasi Boateng, said the gesture was embarked on recognizing the positive roles the institution plays in caring for special needs children.
“We carried a need assessment, engaged with authorities and was given a list of things that are in short in the school. Looking at how beneficial the school has been to many children in critical need, it was only a duty that we assist as well in our own way,” he said.
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