The Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) Church has donated 33 dual desks to the Anowaam SDA Basic School at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The GHS5,000 donation was funded by the Ghana Adventist Heritage Fund.

Prior to the donation, pupils of the Anowaam SDA Basic School – a public school established and supported by the church - had to sit on bare classroom floors for lessons.

The headmaster of the school, John Peter Alidu said the SDA Church has been very supportive of the school, providing some books and furniture for the pupils in the past but it was not enough to completely solve the problem of lack of furniture in the school.

He said though this recent donation would help improve the sitting arrangements in the classrooms for effective lessons, there were over 100 pupils in the school who were still without furniture.

The Education Circuit Supervisor of the area, Elizabeth Jonoyiri said when she first arrived at the school in the 2012 – 2013 academic year, lack of furniture was a major challenge but with help from the church, the problem has reduced over the years.

In appreciation to the SDA church, she said; “We are very proud to be associated with this great church. They have done many things for this school because they understand the importance of education”.  

The Church Pastor for the Bolgatanga Central SDA Church, Pastor Michael Osei-Poku, who doubles as the director for the Upper East Field Unit of the SDA church said the Church decided to mobilise funds for the purchase of the furniture when they realised during a visit to the school, that some of the pupils from Primary 1 all the way to the Junior High School were sitting and lying on the bare classroom floors for lessons.

“So, the church thought it wise to support the government to provide quality education for our children”, he said.

The pupils of the Anowaam SDA Basic School were excited about the donation. A Primary 6 pupil, Mariam Mohammed said; “We are very happy and we promise to take good care of them (the dual desks)”.