10th Anniversary Speech by Togbi Akume Geli Adjorlolo III, Chief of the Village of Atorkor, and Chair of the Atorkor Development Foundation
Mr. Chairman, Mama Amexletsi Dunenyo II, Togbiwo, Mamawo, Dumegaoo, Hon. District Chief Executive of Anlo, The Director of NVTI, Mrs Mawusi Awitty, Municipal Director of Education Anloga/Keta, UK Trustees of the ADF present, Mrs. Adele Ruddock, the Assemblyman, the Unit Committee members, Clergies, PTA Executives, Manager & staff and Trainees, Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of the ADF and the community/people of Atorkor, I would like to welcome you all to the 10th anniversary celebration and 3rd graduation ceremony of the AVTI. I convey fraternal greetings from the trustees of the Foundation in London to you all. They send their congratulations to the Institute for this milestone and of course the graduates. I would like to acknowledge and thank all guests who have taken time off their busy schedule to honour our invitation.
I extend my congratulations to the Executive Director NVTI: Mrs Awitty for her new appointment as the DG of TVET.
Today I am speaking about the history of the school, but I would also like to comment on the challenges, future direction, and progress of the school.
The ADF since its inception IN 2001 has been guided by a constant vision. That is to transform Atorkor from a very poor, under-developed and inadequately served community into a self-sustaining village with a full range of basic amenities: modern schools, a well-equipped medical centre, affordable communication facilities and a vocational centre to provide a variety of skills training to the youth and unemployed.
In partnership/working with other organisations both local and overseas, through the hard work, enormous sacrifices, commitment, dedication of volunteers, extremely kind and generous donors from places like Canada, U.S.A, UK and Ghana, the ADF is investing in and improving Education, Healthcare and employment opportunities for the this community and beyond.
The Foundation has therefore carried out a number of projects including the Administrative block with the IT centres, Library. A 3-unit classroom block and about to establish the Atorkor Earlier Years Education Centre all in the Basic School. The Medical clinic and the medical laboratory.
History: The need for the provision of vocational training has been very high on the agenda of the Foundation since its inception in 2001 and it was formally incorporated into the first of the Foundation’s Strategic Development Plan drawn up in 2006, for the period 2008 to 2012.
The virtual collapse of the fishing industry, the mainstay of the local economy, has resulted in massive unemployment and consequent high levels of poverty with very few youngsters able to continue after their basic school Education. Even though the Foundation has been supporting some of these children by providing educational sponsorship to enable them continue further formal education, this is not sufficient to address the problem. Hence the need for a Vocational school to address the high level of youth unemployment by providing them with the opportunity to acquire relevant skills to assist them in generating sustainable income and thereby diversify the economic future of the community.
The provision of vocational training school by the ADF drew a step closer when in 2009 Ms. Peta Hall was sent to Atorkor by the Village Volunteers, the ADF’s partner organisation based in the U.S.A. to work with the Foundation. Soon after her visit to Atorkor, I hosted a meeting in London attended by Ms. Peta Hall and Mr. Walter Deffor, one of the trustees of the ADF. The outcome of that meeting was very significant as it laid the concrete foundation for setting up of the vocational Institute. Lack of funding was identified as the main obstacle to the setting up.
I again hosted a second meeting in London at which Ms. Hall presented the design done by a well-known Canadian architect, Mr. Brian Clark. These designs were subsequently modified to take into account local conditions. It was agreed to build the Institute in phases.
Under the auspices of the ADF in 2010 the Keta Municipal Assembly was approached and land was donated for the project, with the approval of the community leaders.
PHASE 1
Ms. Hall then contacted the Bake Family Foundation who provided the initial funding through the ADF for the phase 1 building, called the BAKE BLOCK. The construction was started in February 2011, by the ADF construction team led by Mr. Sammy Larbi and completed in July 2011 and commissioned by the Hon. Mr. C.K. Humado the then local MP and the Minister of Youth and Sport in August 2011.
The Rotary Clubs of Ontario, Canada, private Canadian donors and the then National Youth Employment program (NYEP) which became GYEEDA funded the set up and equipment cost for this phase. It was opened to students in November 2011 with the initial intake of 80.
PHASE 2
The phase 2 was very critical as there was the need to increase the number of courses, especially those that would benefit the young men since the phase 1 courses benefitted mainly the women.
The construction of the second phase, the Humado Block, commenced in March 2012; the same local building team was used. Funding came from NYEP/GYEEDA. The construction was completed in September 2012. The Humado Block was commissioned by the Hon. C.K Humado on October 9, 2012. This building houses a general office, workshops with instructors’ offices in Welding. The sourcing of funding for the phase 2 was led by Hon. Mr. C. K. Humado and hence the building is appropriately named after him.
All the buildings have allowances for expansion and the Humado Block can withstand a complete second storey. Through Ms Peta Hall’s fundraising in Canada, groups, organisations, Picton Rotary, churches and many private Canadian citizens have donated to the AVTI. Those donors’ names can be found on the entrance wall to the school. In 2013 VITOL Charitable Foundation, London provided grants for the equipment for courses in Welding, Electrical Installation, Masonry construction, Catering and Dress Making. Funding for operating the Centre was provided by GYEEDA through an agreement with the ADF. Ms. Peta Hall became the first director of the School. NVTI absorbed the Institute in January 2013 after application from the ADF for partnership and it became known as the Atorkor Vocational Training Institute (AVTI). Rev. G. R. Asiedu-Osafo was appointed the first Manager.
The Foundation has always made it clear that the partnership does not mean we have abandoned the Institute but rather we continue to offer support. Hence in 2018 the Foundation signed an agreement with Picton Rotary, Canada for the installation of the solar panels. The project was facilitated by Peta Hall. The whole project was funded by the late Canadian Philanthropist Mr. Peter Naylor who donated CDN$ 214,000.
The Atorkor Development Foundation would like to thank the following people:
Mrs. Peta Hall for leading the fundraising efforts.
Hon. CK Humado for his enormous support and sourcing huge funding for equipment and for phase 2, Picton Rotary, churches, the late Mr Peter Naylor and many private Canadian citizens. VITOL Charitable Foundation, London, hardworking construction team, the women who planted and nursed the flowers and shrubs, the late Dr. Prosper Adabla for helping in setting up the library, Keta Municipal Assembly especially Hon. Sylvester Tornyeava, the former Municipal Chief Executive. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the former owners of the land on which the Institute was built. I very much appreciate their patriotism, kindness and community spirit in allowing the project to go ahead. I am aware the registration process has not been completed yet.
I would like to thank Mrs Adele Ruddock, ADF trustee from the UK for her sacrifice and indeed her unflinching support to me personally, AVTI and of course the work of the ADF.
I would also like to thank the NVTI for the partnership, especially the great and cordial working relationship between the ADF & the NVTI. Going forward, we hope to continue to work constructively with NVTI, the manager and the staff to ensure the aims and objectives of setting up the Institute are achieved.
Mr. Chairman, The ADF is governed by a six-member trustee body based in London, which is responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the Foundation of these only 2 of us have link to Atorkor. Day-to-day management of the Foundation is undertaken by me. The Foundation has no paid employees and does not pay for the services of trustees, who also meet their own expenses. Therefore when I or any other members/trustees like Adele travel here all the money is from our own pockets. Therefore, ALL monies raised by the Foundation go directly to fund projects. This is the ethos of the ADF. The Institute and all the other projects of the Foundation were built through the sacrifice of kind and generous donations of people who have no link to Atorkor, but wanted to support the community and improve the living conditions.
The end users or the beneficiaries must also be kind and generous to contribute to build upon what they have come to meet. It means as students/trainees we should study hard, care for or look after the facilities, not damage, comport ourselves
Teachers: Go the extra mile to support the trainees, work with the Manager. Sometimes it is not about money as we may not have the money but we have our skills and time to donate or to use to support others. We do not necessarily have to be paid for everything we do. The ability to give back to your community, to be of service to your community and its members, is a virtue which is very important and should be part of the ethos of the Institute and should be incorporated into the induction of new trainees and staff. They should be constantly reminded so that by the time they leave here charity becomes integral part of their acquired skills and is embedded in their DNA. This is what will build the country and make Ghana a great nation.
I have been asked to tell you the history of AVTI and bring you a message from ADF. That’s the message.
CHALLENGES FACING AVTI:
Mr. Chairman, I acknowledge there are many challenges facing this young Institution, but the biggest challenge is how to make the dreams of the trainees come true. In other words how to make sure that the
i) The school provides the trainees with the necessary skills: The current system places too much emphasis on the number of trainees admitted or the population without making sure there are the requite facilities including training equipment to support the population of trainees. This will surely affect the quality of training provided.
ii) To assist the trainees so that the skills acquired here are utilise to make a living for themselves therefore reduce unemployment and contribute to National Development. And it is critical that the important role of Technical & Vocational education is recognised and supported through the provision of adequate funding and post training support in setting up businesses, industries etc.
This is the next stage of the development of the Institute that the Foundation is urgently working on.
This why I am very pleased and indeed would like to congratulate the current Government for the root and branch reforms of technical & vocational education through the TVET program.
The Foundation is working with the Institute to set up a graduate and business department which will be a commercial arm of the Institute to provide services to individuals and organisations. It will also provide employment to some of the graduates as well as support the graduates in their quest for employment, setting up of businesses and undertaking further higher education. The Foundation would like to work with the old student association, and I would encourage the graduates to join the AVOSA.
PLANET-CORE PROJECT: I would like to thank the Government for the provision of additional infrastructure and facilities of the institute through the Planet-core project. However, when the project was first proposed the design, I was told would involve storey building and I welcomed that because of the limited availability of land in Atorkor. However, I was shocked and very disappointed that it has been changed and we now have ground buildings, hence there is no available land space for future development/expansion. This is a very big problem and I hope we can meet the contractors to find out if it is possible to reinforce some structures to carry extra on top. ADF is acutely aware of this therefore all the buildings put up by ADF have foundations that will allow future vertical expansion.
Finally, I would like to congratulate the graduates especially the award winners and wish them well in their future endeavours
Akpe!
Thank you.
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