Aburi, Eastern Region//-The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Stephen Blewett has led staff volunteers of the company to Aburi Presby Senior High Technical School to cut sod for the construction of digitalized boreholes, containerised digital library, and others.
This forms part of activities of this year’s 30 Days of Y’ello Care which coincides with the company’s 30th anniversary.
Giving details of the activities at an event held in the school, Mr Blewett said that MTN Ghana staff volunteers would equip the containerised digital library with computers, internet access, textbooks, storybooks as well as supplementary reading materials after its completion.
The rationale according to him is to improve teaching and learning in the school which is located on the mountain.
Mr Blewett added: “We are doing a classroom which is going to provide computers, access to digital resources like study materials, AI that helps students to choose their career and their university in Ghana.
We are also preparing fields for vegetables that would be connected to the borehole for the water”.
The borehole for the water is controlled through the Internet of Things (IoT), which is controlled by using connectivity. So, they can be on their phone or computer to turn the borehole on or off.
So, it means everything is connected. The borehole is connected to the farming which is we are giving water to the new farmlands that we are doing which is also connected to the computer lab because you can access everything, Mr Blewett indicated.
“We also teach everybody here about what a connected world looks like. On top of that, we are doing digital training. The students here will learn more and more from experts in digital knowledge. If you don’t know digital things in this world, you will struggle a lot”.
The impact is to give these students an edge over other people because they have access to experiment with different things and the opportunity to increase their knowledge.
This he noted is because they’re going to be a digital computer lab that gives the students the ability to learn more and to be ahead.
Because if students go to universities, they are expected to have certain knowledge of digital technologies, and others to enable them to pick up faster.
Why the school was chosen
Touching on why the school was chosen, Mr Blewett had this to say: “Because this is a top performing school. What I’m impressed about the school is their performance in the examinations and how they perform in competitions.
So, we chose it because it is a school that has built itself up to be a top-performing school”.
Advice
He used the occasion to also advise the students to believe in themselves to enable them to conquer the world, saying: “The next president, the next CEO of MTN can come from this school”.
Appreciation
The Headmistress of Aburi Presbyterian Senior High Technical School, Mrs. Joyce Appiah who was elated about the support commended MTN Ghana for bringing the initiatives to the school.
She said the support provided by MTN Ghana would go a long way to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at the school.
Instructively, the 21 Days of Y’ello Care is an annual staff volunteer programme instituted 17 years ago to allow MTN staff to volunteer their skills and services freely for the benefit of the community while investing in identified Community improvement projects.
The interesting thing about Y’ello Care is that it is what the CEO called a “competition for good” element so the winning country gets a cool $100 thousand.
MTN Ghana, having previously won the Y’ello Care Challenge in 2010 and 2011, is well-positioned to win the challenge for the third time as it celebrates MTN’s 30th anniversary.
