Bongo (U/E), Oct. 5, GNA - United Kingdom based Bolgatanga, Bongo, Tongo and Nabdam Area (BONABOTO) citizens on Monday presented 130 computers and two printers to some schools and resource centres in the Upper East Region.

The beneficiaries are Bongo, Tongo and Zuarungu Senior High Schools, the Bolgatanga, Bongo, and Tongo Resource Centres and the Bolgatanga Central Library. The computers, worth over 120,000 Ghana cedis, were presented during a colourful durbar held at the Bongo Senior High School. Mr Nyeya Yen, a representative of the UK BONABOTO branch, who presented the items, said members of the union in the UK were conscious of the hardships people of the north faced and felt the gesture would make a difference in the lives of children in the area.

He pleaded with the three Members of Parliament in the area to use their common fund to support hard working students who due to deprivations could not continue their education. Mr Yen thanked the Greater Accra and Bolgatanga branches for making it possible for the computers to get to the region and pleaded with headmasters to find a secure place to keep them. Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, who received the computers, thanked the donors for their kind gesture. He said the return to the three years senior high school programme had put a lot of pressure on school infrastructure and government was building more classrooms and dormitories for every school to accommodate its students and aid teaching and learning. Mr Woyongo expressed worry about the manner in which some schools destroyed school property in such a not well endowed area like the Upper East Region and praised Bongo Senior High for not engaging in such acts.

Mr Francis Agyeere, District Director of Education, thanked the donors for the computers and pleaded with the Regional Minister to assist the schools with science and Computer laboratories. He said there were 65 primary schools and 35 junior high schools in the Bongo area that needed to be hooked to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), saying that would help prepare the children effectively for higher education. Mr Didacus Afeghra, Regional Chairman of BONABOTO, said it was a non Partisan union that sought to foster unity and development in the area saying BONABOTO had instituted an Educational Assistance Fund (BEAF) to support needy students. He said it would establish hostels in five institutions to support students who faced high cost of rent and accommodation problems in higher educational institutions. He said BONABOTO had also been of support to some schools when the feeding grant from government delayed.