SHS graduate’s dream career in limbo ; Could not attend medical school for lack of funds
The ambition of a 20-year-old graduate of the Nandom Senior High School to become a doctor after obtaining seven A1s and a B3 in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is under threat.
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This is because Master Peter Banoebuuri could not raise funds to pursue his dream, after he had been offered admission by the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in 2014.
Master Banoebuuri's hope for a brilliant future is becoming bleak, as he now assists his mother on a farm bequeathed to her by her late husband.
A Science graduate, Banoebuuri scored A1 in seven of the eight subjects in the June 2013 WASSCE. His worst performance was a B3 in the English Language.
"My mother sacrificed everything to enable me to buy the admission forms at GHc120 last year. I was only hoping that a miracle would happen and I would find myself in school. But it didn't happen, although I qualified for the medical school," he said.
Narrating his story to the Daily Graphic in Wa, Master Banoebuuri said his family could not mobilise funds to pay the initial fee of GHc1,950 required by the school.
The proceeds from the farm can hardly satisfy the many mouths that depend on them.
"I have to join my mother on the farm, so we can fend for ourselves and some other members of the family, since there is no alternative," he said, putting up a brave face that concealed the painful reality which requires an emergency response.
But even in his seemingly optimistic countenance, he admitted: "I know that only a miracle can turn my state around."
Family life
Master Banoebuuri was born to the late Dennis Banoebuuri and Madam Matilda Dunee in Nadowli in the Upper West Region on September 9, 1994.
The sixth of seven children, including two females, Banoebuuri is one of three members of the family privileged to have seen the walls of a classroom.
The farming activities of his parents provided the means for his schooling from the Piree R/C Primary School to the Sombo R/C Junior High School, both in the Nadowli District.
"My father unfortunately died of cardiac arrest just 10 days after my last paper in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)," he said, suppressing the obvious pain brought up by the memory of the loss of his father.
But instead of being bogged down by sorrow, regret and a crave for sympathy, Banoebuuri was encouraged by his performance in the BECE.
His ability to obtain aggregate 11 in the BECE served as the springboard to academic greatness when he entered the Nandom SHS.
"I always wanted to become a doctor to treat children because of my own experience," he told the Daily Graphic. "I was taken to hospital once when I was a child, only for us to discover there was no doctor at post. Upper West needs doctors."
Graphic launches appeal
Meanwhile, members of the Editorial Conference of the Daily Graphic have raised GH¢1,500 which they intend to put into a fund to be known as the Master Banoebuuri Fund to assist him to achieve his dream career.
The conference, therefore, appealed to public-spirited Ghanaians to support the fundraising efforts so that Master Banoebuuri could return to school.
Donate to the fund through the News Editor on telephone number +233 302 684024.