Students of Zorkor Senior High School in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region have no option than to serve their food in an open space closer to the kitchen due to the collapse of their dining hall by rainstorm.
The school which was established in the year 2009 joined the school feeding program in 2017 and has no well-structured dining hall and is therefore using a pavilion as their temporal dining hall while waiting on the government to complete their permanent dining hall which is still at the foundation level.
The Upper East Regional Correspondent for betterghanadigest.com, Godfred Awindenaba paid a visit to the school on Sunday, 1st August 2021, and discovered that the pavilion has been thrown down by wind storm leaving the students with no option than to arrange their dining hall chairs in an open space to serve their food.
Speaking to the dining hall prefect of the school, Roland Apangabunu, he lamented that the situation is so worrying to them because serving the food in an open space doesn’t make them comfortable because wind can easily carry dust or other dirty material into the food which is a risk to their health.
He added that whenever it is threatening to rain at dining hours, they have to wait until the rain falls and stops before they can go for the food no matter how hungry they are, according to him, the situation is an impediment on their academic life.
Azeko Mathew one of the cooks also disclosed that the collapse of the pavilion is making them feel bad because they are parents, he added that seeing students go through such difficulties to feed is an unpleasant experience.
He however disclosed that the school authorities told them that they were going to repair a spoiled four-wheeled truck for them to always convey the food from the kitchen to the classrooms block where the student can serve themselves there but according to him, that is a dangerous move following the distance and the unavailability of an access road between the kitchen and the classroom blocks.
Gladys Kuntam and Comfort Aniah (cooks) also expressed their displeasure over the situation lamenting that whenever the students come to serve their food and rain come, they always run into the kitchen which is very small to accommodate them coupled with heat and so many items which can harm them.
Some of the students revealed that some leaders of the community including the paramount chief of Bongo traditional area have all paid visits to the pavilion since it collapsed one month ago and promised to work on it but nothing has been done to remedy the situation.
In our quest to find out the health implications the situation can pose to the students, Mr. Paul Asambo’o Aduko a nurse at the St. Theresa health center (Zorkor), informed Us that most of the students who visit the clinic are suffering from either enteric fever, ulcer or candidiasis which are mostly caused by unhygienic conditions and so the situation needs to be worked on to help reduce the risk of contracting more diseases.
The students and the cooks are therefore appealing to the school authorities, assembly members, the district assembly, and all benevolent individuals to come to their aid especially now that we are approaching heavy rains.
