Three students of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Navorongo campus, have won the 2008 coca-cola foundation champion and the 2009 Students-in-free-enterprise (SIFE) awards for helping rural folks to undertake poverty alleviation projects.
The students used their own resources to train the members of the Sumbrungu Smock production project in the Upper East Region (UER) in enterprenuership skills development and financial literacy to enhance their ability to improve and expand their bussinesses.
Mr. Amoah Kena Alexander, a computer science student and president of the SIFE, Arthur John Samuel also a computer science student and project Manager of the SIFE and Otu Ayeboafo Solomon, SIFE Founder and a teaching assistant, faculty of applied science presented their awards which were plaques to Professsor David Miller, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the UDS at a brief ceremony in Tamale.
The students have been selected to represent the university in Los-angels, USA, to participate in a forum on SIFEs.
The three awards winner have announced their intention to undertake a project to assist the Sirigu poultry project in UER next year, to enhance the breeding of guinea fowl to rise the living standards of local farmers.
They appealed to the university authourities to assist them with logistics and financial support to undertake similar projects in the future in other communities.
Professor Miller commended the students for their initiative in identifying projects for enterprise development in their communities and
finding local solutions to them.
He said the UDS would continue to support such initiatives in order to make them relevant to the needs of society adding, it was one of the
objectives of government to ensure that universities were in the forefront solving the problems of the communities and industry.