Authorities of the Garden City Special School at Asokore-Mampong, near Kumasi, have appealed to the government to consider increasing the feeding grant for children of the school. This, according to the authorities, has become necessary because of the high cost of food items needed for the proper care and upkeep of the children in the school. Currently, the government provides a grant of GHc5.30 per head for the children at the facility. Mrs. Roseline Adjepong, Headmistress of the school, told GNA that, the authorities were finding it difficult to rely on the GHc 5.30 grant, since it had become woefully inadequate to use it to provide three square meals a day, for the children. The Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday October 10, 2023, visited the facility to interact with the children and staff, as the World celebrated ‘Mental Health Day.’ World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10 every year, is used to create awareness on mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. This year’s theme ‘mental health is a universal human rights’, focuses on inequalities in mental health and how countries can work towards good mental health for all. According to Mrs. Adjepong, currently the school relied so much on credit facilities for food stuffs to feed the inmates due to the delay in the release of the feeding grant allocated to the school for the keep of the children. Currently the school has 192 children with a staff strength of 49. Mrs. Adjepong, said inadequate classrooms, hostels and residential accommodation for teachers was making it difficult to admit more children who needed special education. The school also lacked a vehicle for both administrative work and educational trips, due to the breakdown of the school’s old vehicle. This is making it difficult to transport sick children to health facilities for treatment. The school is the only government institution, which provides special education and training in occupational and social skills such as greetings, brushing of teeth, leather works, wood work and others to children with special needs. It admits children from Ashanti, Brong, Ahafo and other regions. Mrs. Adjepong highlighted the need to scale up public education on the fundamental human rights of children with disabilities, especially on their education and training.
Source: Ghana News Agency