Board of Trustees for Family Health Medical School Endowment Fund inaugurated

Family Health Medical School has inaugurated a seven-member Board of Trustees to manage an Endowment Fund to be officially launched on March 26, 2020.

The will provide financial support to brilliant but needy Ghanaian students who have the desire to be trained as medical doctors.

The newly sworn-in Board of Trustees members for the Endowment Fund comprise, Alhassan Andani – Chairman (Chief Executive, Stanbic Bank); Dr Peter Yeboah – Member (Executive Director, CHAG); Rear Admiral Geoffrey Biekro (Rtd) – Member (Former Chief of Naval Staff); Dr Alex Aboagye – Member (Retired UN Civil Servant); Mrs Merene Benyah – Member (Legal Practitioner/Consultant).

Others are, Rev. (Dr.) Joyce Aryee – Member (Executive Director, Salt & Light Ministries); and Kwaku Glymin – Member (Retired Public Servant). Ms Adjoa Adubea Koram (Assistant Registrar, FHMS) is the Trustees’ Secretary.

Members of the Board of Trustees were sworn into office by an Appeal Court Judge, Justice Dotse Ofoe.

Also at the ceremony was the Medical Director for Family Health Hospital, Dr Susu Kwawukume and Mrs Reeta Auguste, the Ambassador for Family Health University College Medical School.

In a welcome address, the President of Family Health University College, Professor Enyonam Yao Kwawukume disclosed that the selection of the Trustee members was based mainly on integrity because they would be managing the affairs of the Fund.

He averred that the request for the Fund would only be granted by the Trustees and not any other persons.

Prof. Kwawukume however, appealed to the general public to contribute towards the Fund, so that the ‘brilliant but needy’ students who want to become future doctors to assist the nation can also achieve their dreams.

Disclosing the main motives behind the Fund’s establishment, the Registrar of Family Health Medical School, Mrs Rita Kaine explained that, the cost of training medical doctors is high and capital intensive, and that it reflects in the fee charged at the Family Health Medical School.

She said the fee has become prohibitive for many brilliant but needy students to access such bold private initiative.

According to her, some students enthusiastically enrol on the programme and are able to gather funds to pay off their fee for the first year, only to default in subsequent years, and eventually abandon the programme.

She revealed that to mitigate this challenge, Management in its bid to give back to society has waived off accommodation fees for the affected students.

The school, she mentioned, has also secured scholarships for some students, solicited for sponsorship from certain individual philanthropists and has now established the Family Health Medical School Endowment Fund.

The purpose of the Endowment Fund among others is to provide financial support to brilliant but needy Ghanaian students who have the desire to be trained as medical doctors, through the periodic distribution of gifts, grants and donations to defray their tuition fees and other related costs from the Fund.

The Fund will also ensure the continued enrolment of a diverse group of undergraduates from low-income backgrounds within the country and help the University to realise its objective of making medical training accessible to more Ghanaian citizens.

The Fund will constitute gifts, grants, donations, and bequests, as may be given by a corporate body, a group of persons, or an individual.

Any person may contribute money or other personal, or real property to the Fund, the school’s management explained.

Family Health Medical School, Ghana’s premier private medical school, has achieved major milestones since its inception in 2014 to complement the government’s efforts to provide excellent healthcare training to Ghanaian citizens.