Nine (9) fresh tertiary students, including four (4) girls from the Volta Region have been awarded scholarships worth GHS 31,000 by the Concerned Volta Citizens Education Fund (CVC Edufund).
The need-based financial package included half payment of the tuition fees of all award recipients in addition to a lump sum of GHS 1,200 to support the students’ lodging and other needs for the year. The individual support amount ranged from GHS 2,774 for Home Economics to GHS 5,586 for Medicine. Similar support will be provided to them each year until they finish their programmes at the university.
Speaking at the award ceremony in Accra, a Director of the CVC Edufund, Mr. Charles Nornoo, noted that many students were challenged with how to finance their education beyond the secondary level and said “We believe that helping brilliant but needy children is one of the best legacies we can leave for our region”.
Mr. Nornoo said, those who have contributed to give this support were not millionaires but were ordinary people who recognized the importance of helping others. He said the most significant aspect of the CVC membership was being “people who are ready to support others to become like them. It is no millionaires club but an organization of people who see the importance of helping others” by contributing the little they could afford.
He, therefore, charged recipients of the award to be diligent in their studies and to reciprocate the support being given by volunteering service to their communities of origin and accepting to teach in deprived secondary schools as well as doing other forms of community service during vacations.
Many of the recipients told very moving stories of their financial challenges, five of who completed school in 2019 but stayed home because their parents could not afford the cost of their education.
Martha Parabor, one of the recipients, underscored the importance of the financial package and brought tears to the eyes of many when she narrated how she got selected. Martha, who is studying for the Bachelor of Science in Accounting (BSc Accounting) said, she “lost all hope of ever studying to become an auditor” because her parents were poor and their only source of livelihood, a rice farm had been taken from them by the landowners. Her family survived on the little game her father brought from hunting in addition to her mother’s petty-trading. Fortunately, her former teacher at the Basic level linked her with the CVC Edufund and she got selected for the award.
Twenty-one applications, in all, were processed out of which the nine recipients were short-listed for the award after a rigorous selection interview. New students will be awarded each year.
A former Regional Director of Education and former Headmaster of Anlo Secondary School, Mr Emmanuel Korshie Keteku, who chaired the occasion, extolled the CVC’s efforts saying “it is a valuable organisation because they think about the needs of the society and find solutions” by way of supporting the financial needs of brilliant but deprived students.
The CVC Education Fund is need-based package to support eligible students from the Volta Region to fulfil their dreams of accessing tertiary education in Ghanaian universities.
Editor’s Note:
To learn more about the CVC Edufund, kindly contact any of the two detailed below.
- Ghana Contact: His Lordship Mr. Justice James Benuyenah Benson (Rtd) – +233 208 137 411
- Diaspora Contact: James K. Agorsor – +1 (240) 381 9750
To support this laudable initiative and join the cause by contributing whatever amount you wish in order to advance this charitable and noble goal of educating some of the most brilliant students from the Volta region.
SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO
Bank Payments & Transfer:
Account Name: Concerned Volta Citizens Education Fund
Bank: GCB Bank, Spintex Branch
Account Number: 1381010041747
Swift Code: GHCBGHAC
Using MTN MoMo: 0559628333 in the name of Edna Owusu-Nyampong. Kindly use your name as reference and send additional notification information to +233 244 299 377.
Your efforts will address the acute tertiary education deficit we have been experiencing in the region.