Atinka FM, others pledge to support Master Banoebuuri ; To revive his dream to become medical doctor

Seth J. Bokpe Feb - 13 - 2015 , 01:34

An Accra private radio station, Atinka FM, a member of the Tobinco Group of Companies, and a number of individuals and organisations have expressed interest in supporting the education of Master Peter Banoebuuri, whose dream of becoming a medical doctor hangs in the balance because of his inability to raise money to finance his education at the medical school.

A letter from Atinka FM signed by its General Manager and addressed to the Editor of the Daily Graphic read in part “On behalf of JAM Media Consult, operators of ATINKA 104.7 FM, I am happy to communicate to your outfit, our decision to take the entire cost of Master Baniebuuri’s education at the UDS. Kindly help us get in touch with the young man to enable us to help him.”

Following the Daily Graphic publication of the plight of Master Banoebuuri, the Graphic Newsroom phones were kept buzzing yesterday with calls from as far as the United Kingdom and Germany, with philanthropists pledging their support to revive the academic dream of the brilliant, needy 20-year-old young man.

Among the organisations that have also expressed interest in supporting Master Banoebuuri are the Zoomlion Foundation, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Royal House Chapel International.

At least 20 individuals including the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Agyepong, have also expressed their willingness to contribute their quota to help him.

Master Banoebuuri would have needed GH¢180 to buy new application forms for the 2014/2015 academic year, GH¢2,600 as admission fee and GH¢600 per year as hostel fee.

He would need additional funds for books, feeding and other miscellaneous expenses.

Mr Agyepong said he wanted to offer him scholarship throughout his stay in medical school.

“These are brains that should not go to waste,” he said in a telephone call to the Graphic Newsroom.

Public interest

The public got interested in Master Banoebuuri following a Daily Graphic publication yesterday that his hope for a brilliant future was becoming bleak, as he now assisted his mother on a farm bequeathed to her by her late husband.

A science student, Banoebuuri scored A1 in seven of the eight subjects in the June 2013 WASSCE. His worst performance was a B3 in English Language.

"My mother sacrificed everything to enable me to buy the admission forms at GH¢120 last year. I was only hoping that a miracle would happen and I would find myself in school. But it didn't happen, although I qualified for the medical school," he said.

Narrating his story to the Daily Graphic in Wa, Master Banoebuuri said his family could not mobilise funds to pay the initial fee of GH¢1,950 required by the school.

The proceeds from the farm can hardly satisfy the many mouths that depend on them.

"I have to join my mother on the farm, so we can fend for ourselves and some other members of the family, since there is no alternative," he said, putting up a brave face that concealed the painful reality which required an emergency response.

But even in his seemingly optimistic countenance, he admitted: "I know that only a miracle can turn my state around."

Family life

Master Banoebuuri was born to the late Dennis Banoebuuri and Madam Matilda Dunee in Nadowli in the Upper West Region on September 9, 1994.

The sixth of seven children, including two females, Banoebuuri is one of three members of the family privileged to have seen the walls of a classroom.

The farming activities of his parents provided the means for his schooling from the Piree R/C Primary School to the Sombo R/C Junior High School, both in the Nadowli District.

"My father, unfortunately, died of cardiac arrest just 10 days after my last paper in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)," he said, suppressing the obvious pain brought up by the memory of the loss of his father.

But instead of being bogged down by sorrow, regret and a crave for sympathy, Banoebuuri was encouraged by his performance in the BECE.

His ability to obtain aggregate 11 in the BECE served as the springboard to academic greatness when he entered the Nandom SHS.

"I always wanted to become a doctor to treat children because of my own experience," he told the Daily Graphic. "I was taken to hospital once when I was a child, only for us to discover there was no doctor at post. Upper West needs doctors."

Rescued future

This is the second time in two years the Daily Graphic is rescuing the medical education dreams of brilliant needy students. In 2013, two students — Olivia Agbenyeke and Bernice Datsomor, both of whom had 7A1s and a B in the 2012 WASSCE but needed philantropists to save their dreams of going to medical school.

Olivia defied all the difficulties of the Agbogbloshie slum — teenage pregnancy, prostitution, drug addiction, robbery, noise pollution, despicable sanitation conditions and late night sleep as a result of helping her father in his drinking spot business — to emerge as an academic prodigy.

While Olivia is at the University of Ghana, Bernice has been offered full scholarship by MasterCard Foundation to study at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Graphic launches appeal

Meanwhile, members of the Editorial Conference of the Daily Graphic have raised GH¢1,500 which they intend to put into a fund to be known as the Master Banoebuuri Fund to assist him to attain his dream career.

The conference, therefore, appealed to public-spirited Ghanaians to support the fundraising efforts, so that Master Banoebuuri could return to school.

Donate to the fund through the News Editor on telephone number +233 302 684024.