Sunday, August 24, 2008

CHALK FACTORY WORKERS GRATEFUL TO MINISTRY (PAGE 43)

WORKERS at the Society for the Physically Challenged Chalk Factory in Accra have expressed their gratitude to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for continuing to award the factory contracts on a regular basis and appealed to the service to increase the size.
The workers also appealed for an extension of the contract between the GES and the society to keep them in employment.
They explained that the present contract for the supply of chalk lasted only from January to August while for the rest of the year the workers and factory remained idle.
Mr Elvis Kosi Atipui, Production Manager of the factory, said this year, the GES awarded the factory a contract of GH¢25,000 for the supply of 50,000 boxes of chalk, which the factory accomplished before August. He said as a result, the 19 workers were to be sent home to report again in January, 2009.
He said because of the lack of full-time employment for the workers, they tended to go stale.
The Production Manager appealed to the business community and proprietors of educational institutions, as well as private retailers, to patronise the chalk manufactured by the society as a means of discharging their social responsibility, as well as assisting the society to grow.
He said the factory had acquired new machines and assured their potential customers of quality products.
Mr Atipui said the packaging of the chalk had also undergone considerable improvement and could withstand the rough handling when being transported from one destination to another.
He said plans were also far advanced to diversify the products of the factory to find a lasting solution to the periodic closure of the factory.
He mentioned some of the items to be produced by the factory as tooth picks, which he said were being imported into Ghana from China and Europe.
The Production Manager described some of the physically challenged workers of the factory as highly talented who, when supported, could help produce artefacts and other goods for the local and sub-regional markets.
He, however, lamented that so far the society had to rely on philanthropy to pursue its aspirations and appealed for a comprehensive and sustainable programme for the disabled to enable the nation to tap every talent in the country for accelerated development.

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