The Ghana Home Economics Association (GHEA) has donated teaching and learning materials to four schools in the Ga East Municipality as part of activities marking its 60th anniversary.
The beneficiary schools are the West Legon Academy, Agbogba Anglican 1 & 2, High Moral International School and Mary Candyland School.
The items donated included abacuses, artificial fruits, vegetables and fish for classroom use, supplementary reading books, school bags, shoes, socks and used clothing.
The GHEA anniversary, held on the theme: “60 Years of Home Economics: The Past, the Present and the Future,” was marked with a week-long series of activities including media engagements, workshops and was climaxed with the donation exercise.
Donation
Presenting the items, the immediate past General Secretary of the association, Augustina Brown, said the choice of Ga East was deliberate.
“The area is flood-prone and children are usually the most affected when families lose their belongings. As home economists, we deal with the home and the family. We want to put smiles on the faces of these children so they can grow well, learn well and become responsible citizens,” she explained.
She said the gesture formed part of the association’s long-standing tradition of supporting vulnerable communities.
Mrs Brown said although many people misunderstood home economics as limited to cooking and sewing, the discipline had shaped national policies and contributed to development.
“It was home economists who advocated against selling drinking water in open buckets, which led to the introduction of sachet water. We also pushed for the exclusive breastfeeding policy, which is now a programme of the Ghana Health Service,” she said.
She added that the association was focused on equipping students with 21st-century skills, including ICT and artificial intelligence (AI), to make them more relevant in today’s economy.
The Ga East Municipal Director of Education, Eric Sey, commended the association for the donation, describing it as timely and impactful.
“These materials will support literacy and numeracy at the kindergarten level and improve teaching and learning in our schools.
The municipality is huge, with 350 private schools and 32 public schools, many of which are overcrowded and under-resourced.
This support will go a long way to make a difference,” he said.
Mr Sey added that while government and local assemblies continued to provide resources, partnerships with NGOs and associations such as GHEA were crucial in addressing gaps.
“As a director, I engage stakeholders and lobby for support. Recently, Zonta Club donated laptops to a school in the municipality.
We will continue to seek such collaborations so that more schools can benefit,” he said.
Appreciation
The proprietor of High Moral International School, Mrs Dorothy Quansah, speaking on behalf of the other proprietors, expressed gratitude to the association for the gesture.
“Before, we were thinking it’s only sewing and cooking, but now you’ve made us know that it’s not only for cooking.
You can become a doctor, you can become an architect, you can become anything, even a teacher.
So we appreciate what you’ve done, and we hope it will continue for everybody to know that home economics is not only sewing and cooking,” she said.
Mrs Quansah added that the schools valued the learning materials provided and described them as very useful for improving classroom teaching and learning.
“We appreciate what you’ve done very well, and we thank you also,” she said.
