KNUST MasterCard Foundation scholars renovate Life Community Special school

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Scholars of MasterCard Foundation have renovated various structures at Life Community Special school in the Ashanti region.

The group has also donated a corn mill machine to the school.

The group’s support to the school came at a cost of about 30,000 dollars.

The project according to the Programmes officer in charge of community engagement and mentorship forms part of efforts by the scholars to contribute their quota to support the less privileged in society.

According to the Scholars, Life Community Special School was chosen as the beneficiary of the annual service day project where scholars give back to society after the scholars identified that the school has been facing a number of challenges which needed to be addressed to help make the school lively for the students.

Speaking to Citi News, after commissioning the renovated school, the Programme Officer, in charge of community engagement and mentorship programmes, Patrick Opoku Onyina said the project seeks to make an impact in the lives of the students of the special school.

“I mobilize the scholars and put them through training to give back to the communities. So when they identified this school, the less privileged, I think it cuts for everything we are trying to do and whatever we stand for. So we came together, and we saw how best we can make an impact in the lives of the students here. So we came here. We paved the walkways and their play area. We procured a corn mill machine, and we have housed it in a very nice structure all at the cost of about 30,000 dollars just to have an impact in the lives of the students and to let them know that they have not been neglected,” Patrick Opoku Onyina noted.

Established in 2000 by a Non Governmental Organization and later handed over to the government, Life Community Special School primarily builds the capacity of persons with disabilities.

According to the headmaster of the school, since the government absorbed the school, nothing has been done to improve the infrastructure of the school.

It was as a result of this that the headmaster expressed excitement about the project, adding that this is the first time they are benefiting from such a project.

“This project is a huge one. I’m fact, this is the first time an organization has come to do this for us and this is going to help the children a lot. It’s a policy that every institution has to have a disability-friendly environment. This place used to look like the bad road up there. Now, this is disability friendly. You can see that some of my students cannot walk well but now they can play and run around without hurting themselves,” Joseph Stanley, Headmaster, Life Community Special and Vocational School stated.

Speaking on behalf of the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof John Tiabugri noted that the project forms part of the objectives of the University.

“The University strives on three core mandates. We do teaching at the highest level of quality, then we do research at the highest level of quality, but we are not satisfied with these two until we are able to impart lives in the community positively. So community impact is extremely important to the university as it’s the third core mandate. On that core, we owe it as a duty to look for those vulnerable communities and see how best we are able to support them,”

The programmes manager for MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, Afia Ampomaa Awuah, also noted that the project forms part of the responsibilities of the Scholars programme.

“ As part of their responsibility on the scholars program, scholars are required to give back to their community as a group and as individuals. That is the essence of the service day where students give back collectively to a community in the environs of KNUST to support and provide assistance in the aspects that the community requires”.