Teachers, pupils and their parents attended the ceremony, together with civil and education officials, including the ‘Queen Mother’, a most important personage in the local culture and society. In their speeches the guests thanked and recognised the significant contribution of the sons of Don Bosco to the education of children and young people, operating even when there were no state structures present.
There were also speeches from Mgr Matthew Gyamfi, bishop of the Sunyani diocese, and Dorothea Hahn, a consecrated teacher from Bonn, who had supported and followed the project through all its phases.
Fr Italo Spagnolo, the parish priest in charge of the mission station, thanked those who had made the extension work possible and gave a short history of the presence of the Salesians and the growth of their educational commitment.
Arriving in the Sunyani diocese in 1992, the Salesians set up a professional training centre at Odumase, which in 1995 became the Don Bosco Vocational and Technical Institute with six departments and 365 students from various parts of the country. In the following years schools were set up in the various mission stations of the area, linked to the centre in Odumase. In 1995 a primary school with six classes was opened in Adoe and the next year a similar one was set up in Tainso. In 1997 six elementary classes were set up in Abronie and in Odumase, where four nursery classes were also attached. In 1998 it was the turn of Asuofiri. In 2001 a boarding hostel for 70 girls was set up in Odumase, and in 2003 a primary school was opened in Sereso.
The work of extending the school was carried out by the pupils and staff of the Bosco Vocational and Technical Institute at Odumase, under the supervision of Mr Yeboah Korkor. Many benefactors from Poland and Germany, as well as Miss Hahn and her pupils, contributed to the completion of the project.
20/3/2008
