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St. Don Bosco Special School needs urgent help …as sick pupils are transported to hospital on motor bikes
● The school has 135 pupils with special need
Lack of transport at the St. Don Bosco Special School at Loho in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region is making the work of teachers and school mothers difficult as they have to transport sick children to the hospital on motor bikes.
According to the Headmistress of the school, Ms Veronica Dong, some of the children always fell sick due to their disabilities and left the teachers with no option but to convey them on motorbikes and in severe cases, on commercial tricycles popularly called Mahama (can do) to the hospital for treatment.
Ms Dong who was speaking to journalists at the school’s premises on the challenges of the institution described the situation as worrying, given that some of the children were epileptic and had seizures often.
“You cannot imagine transporting an epileptic child on a motor bike to the health centre when the school could be provided with a means of transport to facilitate our movement”, she said.
The St Don Bosco Special School was opened in 2016 for children with special needs who were hitherto accommodated at the campus of the Wa School for the Deaf.
The school currently has 135 pupils with some of them living with epilepsy whilst others had Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders.
Ms Dong said although the school had a clinic with a nurse, most of the conditions needed attention from a general hospital and would be grateful if means of transport was provided for the school to support them.
The headmistress stated that among the numerous challenges the school faced included inadequate number of mothers to help take care of the children coupled with staff accommodation at the campus.
“The mothers are people who have been employed to assist the children at school with bathing, washing, feeding, among others so you can imagine the stress four women go through with 135 children, most of whom need support”, she said.
She explained that the situation was compounded by the lack of staff accommodation on campus for teachers to support the mothers and said when the teachers left for their respective homes after school hours, burden was placed on the four school mothers.
She believed monitoring of the children and helping with their daily needs would be easier on the mothers if their number was increased or accommodation was provided for the teachers on campus and called on government to support the school in that regard.
She further made an appeal to benevolent bodies and organisations to support the school with food items as well as training facilities to help train the children in handiwork.
She pleaded with philanthropist to donate wheel chairs to the school to enable them admit children with movement challenges stating that a child was not admitted because she could not move at all.
“We need wheel chairs to be able to admit children with special needs who are unable to move about; in fact, our problems are really numerous so we are ready for whatever support we will find”, she added.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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