Students of the Walewale Vocational and Technical Institute (WAVTI) in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region are bearing the brunt of the shortage of food in the school.
The school which was recently added to the beneficiary boarding schools in the region is still not properly feeding the students the required diet.
The students are fed with gari without sugar, salt, or oil for over three weeks during lunch and supper meals respectively.
Some students are suffering from beriberi, with sores in their mouths, stomach pain, and diarrhea due to the continuous intake of gari without oil or sugar.
Meanwhile, the boys are compelled to carry concrete and other construction-related works in Walewale and other neighboring communities due to the hunger they are encountering.
They lamented that the shortage of food in the school had affected their studies and other academic activities.
“We are suffering here. Every day, we are given only gari. Some of us have diarrhea and fever due to the gari we are eating. If we get the chance, we will run to our parents. They have been giving us gari, we cannot count the number of weeks that we take gari,” one of the students lamented.
Some say they are scratching their private parts because of the kind of food they always take.
“We are not getting enough and some of us don’t have food in our chop boxes or money to buy food. It is affecting us. Some of us are scratching our testis because of the gari we take every day,” another student bemoaned.
Another student also added that “They have been giving us food like porridge in the morning without sugar and then lunch times too, they normally give us gari without oil or sugar. We are suffering because whenever we call home for help, our parents always tell us that the school is feeding us so why are we requesting food again? Things are difficult here and we don’t know what to do.”
Meanwhile, some sources disclosed that on Wednesday 5th of October, the students took porridge for breakfast, lunch, and supper after their usual gari got finished on Tuesday (4th October 2022).
The principal of the school declined to comment on the issue saying the regional director of education can only speak on the matter.