Kosmos Energy Ghana builds New medical facility at Savelugu School for the Deaf

The Savelugu School for the Deaf’s hospital has been updated, furnished, and restored by Kosmos Energy Ghana, a prominent deep-water exploration and production company.

The school’s infirmary has been raised to the level of a school clinic after being deemed unfit to care for the children. The new building has a sitting room, a bed-filled ward, and an air-conditioned studio that will be used as the students’ assessment center. Along with furniture, it is equipped with a toilet and a bath.

In addition to the physical space, the clinic has been filled with medical supplies for use by the school’s students, faculty, and non-teaching staff, who previously had to travel a distance of several kilometers to receive health care.

On March 8, 1978, the Savelugu School for the Deaf opened its doors to 12 students—eight males and four girls. However, the school has experienced a growth in enrollment throughout the years, bringing the total number of students to 346 at present, consisting of 196 males and 150 females, as well as 45 teaching and non-teaching staff members.

At the handover ceremony, Kosmos Energy Ghana’s Director of New Ventures, Appia Kyei, stated that the company had a “firm belief” that the new building would function as a contemporary clinic, making it simpler for the school to provide secure isolation and treatment facilities to help prevent the spread of any communicable diseases that might affect students.

To provide first aid and triage for illnesses and injuries, to give direct services for students with special needs, and to provide health counseling and education for students, staff, and parents, he said, “the school’s health services are crucial.”

According to him, as a good corporate citizen, Kosmos Energy Ghana made the decision to raise the living standards of some special needs schools in the nation as part of its ongoing social investment program.

The choice to focus on special schools was also made in response to COVID-19’s continuing effects and other outside forces that had an excessively detrimental impact on our society’s most vulnerable citizens. Kosmos Energy Ghana, he claimed, conducted a thorough analysis of the country’s humanitarian needs and discovered that the school’s existing shelter, which served as an infirmary, was inadequate. As a result, it was decided to upgrade it to the level of a school clinic and stock it with some medical supplies.

Fauzia Guonah, the school’s assistant head teacher, stated that as the school developed, parents’ understanding of the importance of providing extra care for kids with special needs also grew.

She said that the school accepted students from kindergarten through junior high school (JHS), ranging in age from four to 18, from everywhere in the Northern Region and beyond.

“In the absence of the school clinic, the management of the school has been faced with an uphill task of using its meager resources to transport pupils to and from the Savelugu Hospital, which is more than two kilometers away,” she said, adding that the school clinic had arrived at a time when it was most needed.

“When a student becomes unwell, the entire day must be spent at the hospital because the kids find it difficult to explain their symptoms to the medical staff. Since nurses cannot communicate in sign language, we must be present to translate the signs. She said that once the school had its own clinic thanks to funding from Kosmos Energy, nurses posted there would receive sign language training.

“We will provide them with the opportunity to become sign language proficient so they may speak with their patients without the use of interpreters.

In addition to the clinic, which is already a key priority for the school, she added, “the boys’ dormitory also requires immediate care, and we wish that other firms would also take it up.”

She explained that because there are now no working bathrooms in the boys’ dorm, students and kids are forced to take showers outside, at the whim of the weather.

Ayishetu Seidu, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Savelugu, praised Kosmos Energy for the initiative and said it will significantly enhance teaching and learning in the school.

She pleaded for greater assistance for the school, which was struggling with a number of issues. Leading deep-water exploration and production business Kosmos Energy is committed to supplying the world’s rising energy needs.

The company’s assets include world-class gas development offshore Mauritania and Senegal as well as oil production and exploration in proven basins offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and the US Gulf of Mexico.