The Chief of Kwahu Nkwatia in the Kwahu East district of the Eastern region, Nana Boamah Ayiripe III, has pledged to make education a topmost priority within his traditional jurisdiction, in an effort to help improve quality and accessibility.
According to the respected chief, the time has come for parents and well-meaning residents of the area to invest in their children’s education, since that is the only way they could develop economically.
Nana Boamah Ayiripe III was speaking at a durbar organised last Sunday to honour hard working teachers and those who have contributed to the development of the traditional area. It was attended by the clergy, business and traditional leaders among others.
The beneficiaries went home with items ranging from television sets, fridges and pieces of cloth among others.
Nana Boamah Ayiripe III charged residents in the area to reconsider the attitude of buying expensive shoes and clothes among other things, at the expense of their children’s education.
“It is time for parents to support their kids’ education due to its importance to their young generation, ” he added.
Promising an all-inclusive leadership, Nana Boamah Ayiripe III indicated that his doors are widely open to every member of the community for any suggestions, support and directions that would advance the collective development goal of the area.
“You can come to the palace anytime, when you are not sure of something to seek redress. I am the chief servant for the people who are ready to listen to suggestions, support”, he said.
The well-respected chief has also embarked on the renovation of the Kwahu Nkwatia District Assembly primary school, which has become a death trap for both teachers and children who use it.
The Kwahu East District Education director, Mr. Robert Andah Monney, expressed his happiness and commended Nana Boamah Ayiripe III for the proactive approach toward the development of education in the area.
Earlier on Friday, the traditional council under the leadership of Nana Boamah Ayiripe III organized a free health screening for the people in the area.
Throwing light on the essence of the screening, the Adontenhene of the area, Nana Osei Sarfo Kantakan, said they were regularly organising the exercise but have been unable to do so for the past five years due to the demise of Nana Atuobi Yiadom IV.
He was happy that Nana Boamah Ayirepeh, who succeeded Nana Atuobi decided to bring it back.
“To me, the health screening exercise has been embraced by the people, looking at the number of participants. As of the time I checked, over 300 people have been screened, we cannot make a comparison between now and the last edition because it varies.
The last edition was done during the Easter festival, so the numbers may be high because strangers took part.”
The Adontenhene continued that “We are going to keep data for subsequent ones, but it is not going to be a nine-day wonder, we will maintain contact with the health professionals and dialogue with them on how often it can be done.”
To Nana Osei Sarfo Kantakan the participants are happy about the exercise and hoped to maintain it “so we can do it from time to time”.
When asked if he is disappointed in the number of males who participated in the activity, he said, “I can’t say we are disappointed, maybe the community has a higher number of females than males, but as I said earlier, we are going to use the data from this screening to review the program.
“From the data we get, we will get to know how the subsequent ones will be done. As a statistician, I am interested in the data, because that will give us more information and a fair idea about what to do”
Nana Osei Sarfo Kantakan Advised the people to take full advantage of things like the free health screening because it doesn’t happen often and urged those participating to explain to others because no monetary issues were involved.
On her part, the leader of the health practitioners drawn from Enyiresi Hospital Public Health Unit, Mrs. Love Brekorang said, “we have realised there are so many people who are sick, but access to the hospital, especially the financially stricken people, has become a problem.”
This, she disclosed, motivated her outfit to collaborate with the Traditional Council to move the hospital closer to the people, an initiative which started from Atiwa East, before going to the West. The residents were screened for Diabetes, Hypertension, Blood Pressure and other tests.
“Public Health deals with so many diseases but there has been massive uprising with HIV because of the youth, but unfortunately COVID-19 came and over shadowed it.
“I believe it’s time we started creating awareness again about HIV, because the rise is becoming unbearable’, she warned.
