Busa M/A Primary School Desk Project

November 19th, 2024, Written by Mr Kobina Amoako-Atta Hudson (Sailon)

We headed northeast for about 15km to Busa Elementary at 830am from our guest house in Wa. We picked up Mr. Issah (a community youth representative) from Wa, who schooled in college with Mr. Ibrahim. It was through their association that this donation in Wa came about. This is our first donation in Wa, the capital of Upper East, although we have driven through Wa numerous times en route to other furniture donations north of Wa.

We arrived at Busa Elementary at 915am. It is a huge primary school with over 1000 pupils. There was quite a huge gathering of the community to attend the desk presentation. We were informed it could have been larger, but some of the community remained on their farms to harvest b4 the unset of the dry season.

Busa Elementary sits on the corner of a trading intersection and is open to the public. Therefore, it was very littered with trash from the public and students. Zoroaster and I insisted we would not begin the furniture presentation until the litter was picked up. While the school grounds were being cleaned, we inspected the classrooms (PLEASE SEE VIDEO OF NURSERY KIDS USING THE FLOOR TO LEARN THEIR ABC'S AND 123'S) The school also has a mismatch of furniture or some classrooms lacking any furniture at all. The new school principal, Ms Niamatu Ali Kwara, had actually organized the PTA, and they contributed and built some benches for some of the classrooms when she arrived at the school 3 years ago. Along with vandalism, because the school isn't walled or fenced off, they have had a lot of break-ins and property destruction from many vagrants in the community. But that hasn't detered the heroic teacher from their calling and educating the kids.

With the school grounds finally cleared of litter and trash, we began the presentation. In attendance was the Busa Naa (Chief of Busa), The Chief Imam and Tendeme, Chiefs and Posenaa (Queen), Assemblyman of Busa, Representative from the Wa Municipal Director of Education, Municipal Chief Executive of Wa Municipal Assembly, Women's group, and Vibrant Youth of the Busa Traditional Area. All the groups thanked us for our donations. Zoroaster, Ibrahim, and I were given smocks as an appreciation, and thanks for the desk donation. After all the speeches, we handed over the furniture to the Busa Naa, who in turn handed over to Municipal Director of Education, and then he handed over the furniture to the headmistress of Busa Primary, Ms Niamatu Ali Kwara.

This presentation lasted about 3 hours due to the speeches from all the different groups. It was finally over at 1pm. Ms. Naimatu invited us over for dinner of Ayoyo and TZ in the evening since we had to spend another night in WA.

At dinner at Ms Niamatu's house with her husband and 4 rambunctious boys, we discussed many topics including the history of Northern Ghana and Wa, the Bawku conflict, the different tribes and languages spoken in Northern Ghana. It was a very insightful and educational conversation. These are the different languages spoken in Northern Ghana. (Bolga-Frafra, Jirapa-Dagaare, Mole-Gonja, Navrongro-Kasem, Tumu-Sisaali, and in Wa-Waale)

Tomorrow morning, we head back to Accra this time on the 1-hour 30-minute Passionair flight from WA.

A massive thanks to all our donors, Sowgreen (Ghana) and MEDIGREEN WASTE MANAGEMENT (USA).

Presentation of desks