Two Mandela Washington Fellows of the 2018 Cohort (YALI 2018) have donated customized exercise books worth thousands of Ghana Cedis to an ultra-modern Science and ICT center built in Bui Dam Resettlement Communities of Banda District in the Bono Region. Mr. Kelvin Williams Asuma and Miss. Roselline Oppong Boamah felt and acknowledged the social sustainability and inclusion efforts by the CEO of Bui Power Authority, Mr. Fred Oware who, from his own coffers spent hundred-thousands of Ghana cedis in building the center dubbed Fred Oware Innovation Center and decided to support with One Thousand copies of customized exercise books to augment materials needed for the operation of the center.https://mwfag.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=post
Presenting the books to the CEO at his residence at Bui Dam and asking about his rationale behind the plush and ultra-modern facility, he intimated that it is his heartfelt desire to give to the affected communities to help include them in the modern era where ICT is an inevitable lynchpin in all facets of life. He was very passionate about leaving a legacy in the society and for that matter, the Bui Dam project-affected communities and its enclaves of the bordering Bono and Savannah Districts. He added that he has firm beliefs that the world is going to run on science and technology in solving problems. This has powered his dreams to make infrastructure and facilities available for the children of the deprived surrounding communities to grab the chance to compete favorably with their peers in the cities and catapult them to the fore of affairs in the future as far as science and technology are indispensable ingredients in growth and development. In his words: “tickling the curiosity of the children to feel motivated to resort to science and technology to solve everyday problems.”
Mr. Oware is an avid enthusiast of education in general and ICT in particular and has endeavored numerous programs to augment and give a facelift to education in the affected communities. He has instituted a give-back-to-community program by extending power, wiring, and providing bulbs and fans to the schools’ classrooms and also evening classes where devoted staff have been teaching in the schools of the affected communities especially the finals years who have enjoyed tuition, materials, and financial supports in preparations towards their final exams.
The imposing edifice of the Fred Oware Innovation Center has a huge aesthetic appeal on the environment and has changed its surroundings. The Center, among other things, will make ICT learning and application as in robotics and computing available to students. It has a space for a library and a science laboratory. The center is run by a team of committee appointed by the CEO and chaired by Ing. Susan Tiwaah Badu-Osei (Mrs.), very able persons of substance who have overseen the construction of the center from day one and Mr. Martin Amadotor, the coordination of all ICT activities. It should be noted that this philanthropic gesture remains solely an individual action from the CEO without any funding from the company Bui Power Authority which he leads. It is a personal initiative borne out of a long natured passion to leave an indelible footprint in the lives of the affected communities in time immemorial through science and technology.
As Nelson Mandela noted, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” We as Mandela Fellows, in the spirit of community development, share the vision and mission of Mr. Fred Oware in taking ICT education to a different level in the project-affected communities and are proud to associate ourselves with the Fred Oware Innovation Center.
Author: Kelvin Williams Asuma
