The dream of an 18-year-old orphan of becoming a doctor in the future is being dashed for lack of finances to pursue his education at the medical school.

Edward Elorm Gbanaglo, who completed Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School (PRESEC) with seven A1s and two B2s, has gained admission to the University of Health and Allied Sciences at Ho in the Volta Region but managed to pay his admission fees with the help of his late mother’s friends.

However, Elorm, who defied all odds to make the excellent grades, fears he might not be able to complete the programme because he does not have a constant source of funding.

Elorm’s fears

Elorm and his two brothers were raised by their grandmother, who is now indisposed, leaving the children, including the medical student, to their fate.

Elorm’s two other brothers, Edwin Serlom Gbanaglo, who is a final-year student of St Augustine’s College, and Kelvin Sena Gbanaglo, who is awaiting the rollout of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), are likely to face similar challenges.

He is, therefore, pleading for support for his education and that of his siblings because their grandmother, Mrs Josephine Gbanaglo, who was a petty trader, can no longer ply her trade because of ill-health.

Dream

Last Friday, he visited the offices of the Daily Graphic to appeal for support to enable him to realise his dream of becoming a medical doctor.

“I want to save lives to ensure that parents do not die and leave their children behind like we are suffering now.

“My mother died in 2010 and my father died in 2019, while I was in PRESEC and I do not want any child to go through such trauma,” he said.

Elorm said he liked watching documentaries on medicine and doctors and got motivated by the way doctors always strove and worked round the clock to save the lives of people, saying “I have always wished to be one”.

He said anytime he watched such movies, “it strengthens my passion for it and so I also want to be in a position to save the lives of people”.

Thanks to Free SHS

Elorm commended President Akufo-Addo for the Free SHS programme,  stressing that “without that, I could not have even completed the SHS. My brother who comes after me is currently in the SHS and the one after him is also about to enter the SHS, courtesy of the Free SHS.

“Indeed, I’m grateful to the President for the Free SHS programme because but for that intervention, I would not have been able to complete SHS as well as my brothers.

Appeal for support

“I need support while In the university so that when I am able to complete the medical school, I will also be able to impact on society in the health sector,” he pleaded.

“I’m appealing to President Akufo-Addo and all well-meaning and benevolent Ghanaians to help me and my brothers to enable us also to come out as useful citizens to contribute our quota to national development.

“We promise we will not disappoint anyone who invests in our education,” the first-year Medicine Student promised.

Elorm was grateful to friends of his parents who contributed money for the initial payment of his tuition, accommodation and other fees. He was also grateful to members of the Rhema Outreach Church, Ashaiman, for their support.