Beneficiaries of the dilapidated wooden structure of the school building of the Street Academy at Mensah Guinea, a slum community in Accra on Monday June 5, 2017 heaved a sigh of relief when MTN Ghana pulled down their structure to build a befitting learning block for them.
Ataa Lartey, Founder and Director of the Street Academy, a non-governmental organization which provides shelter, food and clothing , non- formal education, and healthcare to the vulnerable children in the society, was full of joy and praises for MTN Ghana.
He was confident that the school building project being financed by the telecom giant would help increase the enrollment of the less privileged children roaming on the streets of Accra.
Mr Lartey said: “We use education, culture and sports to expose the hidden talents of the less fortunate children living on the streets of Accra”.
“Our children participate in sports, culture, music, drama and basic education through a non-formal system”, he told African Eye Report at the ground breaking of the project which officially ushered in the annual MTN 21 Days of Y’ello Care.
It is a 21-day long staff volunteerism programme in which employees across MTN’s operations across the world are encouraged to take time off to physically get involved in activities that will uplift the communities they operate in.
It also offers MTN staff the opportunity to brighten lives through this volunteer work.
The Corporate Services Executive of MTN Ghana, Mrs Cynthia Lumor, said after completion of the project the company would also provide a study area stuffed with computers as well as books to make teaching and learning appealing to the children.
Mrs Lumor who was by the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Asante and other senior officials to launch the Y’ello care volunteerism programme under the theme- ‘Investing In Education For All’, with special focus on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) education, noted: “With the rapid advances in technology and increasing digitalization, we at MTN believe that infusion technology in the educational system can help bridge the development gap and extend educational opportunities to students in underserved communities.”
According to UNESCO, three of the major forces shaping and driving education in the 21stcentury are:- development and diffusion of ICTs; increasing demand for new educational approaches and pedagogies that foster transformative and lifelong learning; and reorientation of educational curricula to address sustainable development (SD).
“This signifies that, it is important to shape our education system to embrace technology even at every basic level”, Mrs Lumor explained.
In line with the theme and keenly aware of the importance of technology, MTN volunteers will undertake various activities to promote education and encourage the use of technology during the 21 Days of Y’ello Care, she stressed.
The activities to be undertaken during the period including running of Reading Clinics in selected schools across the three business districts namely South East , South West and Northern Business.
African Eye Report
