Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has visited the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School (WESS), which was hardest hit by last Sunday’s disaster at ground zero of the Kintampo waterfalls in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
Eighteen persons – most of whom are students of WESS – lost their lives. Twenty-two others are receiving treatment at the Kintampo Government Hospital for injuries sustained.
On Monday, Dr Bawumia accompanied by Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Catherine Afeku visited families of victims of the disaster.
The Vice President later in the evening addressed an assembly of students on campus.
He told them how emotionally stricken the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been since he heard about the disaster in Switzerland.
“I can assure you that he would have been here if he were here in Ghana,” Dr Bawumia, who is acting as President, said.
‘All things come from God’
He expressed sympathies to the students, saying: “I know many of you will find it difficult even sleeping as you think about your friends and what has happened to you.”
He assured: “You are not alone and you will never be alone. We will stand by you all throughout this period.”
The Vice President stated how close he feels to the school as it was established in 1963, same year he was born.
He asked the entire student body as well as teaching staff to take consolation from the motto of the school: ‘All things come from God’.
“Please, be strong for each other. Individually, we are all weak but when we come together we are very strong.
“So support one another, talk to one another and everything will be okay, the crying, the pains will ease.”
He assured that government will do all things possible to ease the burden on families of victims as regards the funeral and medical bills.
Also present at the school were the Brong-Ahafo Region Minister, Director General of the National Disaster Management Organisation, chaplain of the Hospital, Methodist Bishop of Kintampo Rt. Rev. Samuel Danso and General Manager of Methodist Schools Very Rev Mrs Naana Nyame.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana