The Citi FM Foundation has launched an initiative aimed at supporting brilliant but needy students through their education.
Launched on the Citi Breakfast Tuesday morning, the Citi Opportunity Project on Education (COPE) is an initiative that seeks to provide full scholarships to brilliant but deprived students to further their education.
Elinam Adadevoh Teinor, COPE Coordinator, explained that the project seeks to finance the education of as many qualified students as possible through the Senior High and University levels of education.
“There are a lot of needy students who need our support to continue their education. Most of these students have the potential to be change leaders in the society but are not getting the financial support they need. The idea of COPE is to be a part of the success stories of these students. We have all gotten here by the help of others. It’s our turn to give back,” she said.
A recent graduate of the University of Ghana and a beneficiary of COPE, Mary Mensah, explained how the project took her up and paid the full cost of her four-year degree programme.
“My father died when I was a young girl. I had to struggle through primary school, JSS and SHS because my mother was not around and I had no help. Some kindhearted people helped me along the way but at a point some of them were asking me to sleep with them before they could give me money for school. When I refused to give in, the help stopped coming. It was very difficult until a friend told me about COPE. I applied to COPE and to my surprise they gave me a full scholarship and now I have completed my university education,” she explained.
According to Mary, she hopes to be a Financial Analyst and intends furthering her education after her national service.
Audio: COPE beneficiaries share their experiences
Other beneficiaries of COPE include Henrietta Amador (a second year student of the University of Ghana – Accra City Campus), Nicholas Quarshie (a first year student of the University of Ghana) and Eron Ansah (a first year student of the University for Development Studies).
A full scholarship for a student in Ghana’s public universities costs between GHc 4600 to GHc 5400. The COPE Projects seeks to raise GHc 250000 to fund at least fifty brilliant but needy students in the various institutions.
COPE is therefore calling on donors to support the dream of beneficiaries by contributing to fund their education. To donate, seek assistance or further information, please call 0209307707 or 0268598511.
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By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana