Youth urged to focus on goals in life
The facilitator of the Nneka Youth Foundation (NYF), Rev. Fr Isaac Benuyena, has advised the youth to concentrate on their studies and focus on their goals in life.
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He said it was every parent’s responsibility to take care of his or her children and cautioned children to not take advantage of their parents, since the family took care of one another.
Rev. Fr Benuyena gave the advice at this year’s NYF camp meeting which took place at Ve-Gbodome in the Hohoe South Constituency in the Afadzato South District in the Volta Region.
This meeting attracted more that 700 participants and was organised on the theme: “The World changers camp”.
For a couple of years now the NYF has been making efforts to change the lives and mindset of more 1,000 children who have been attending its camp meetings.
The foundation is helping to address issues of teenage pregnancy and drug abuse among the youth, especially those living in rural areas, and also helping to correct the persistent poor examination results among the youth through its youth development programmes.
Resource persons from various professions took turns to address the youth on social vices, career counselling, grooming and ethics which were very topical for the children.
The children drew inspiration from the presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, and his running mate, Madam Bridget Dzorgbenuku, who incidentally hails from the Afadzato South District and who had visited them to offer their encouragement.
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As part of its corporate social responsibility towards improving the habit of reading among children, the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), with support from the NYF, gave out 400 free copies of the Junior Graphic to the children.
Ten teams participated in a quiz that was organised based on questions culled from the Junior Graphic .
In the end, Team Puma was declared winners, with Team Immanuel placing second, while Team Anointed placed third.
The winners were given souvenirs donated by the GCGL, Stanbic Bank, Olam Ghana and Promasidor Company Limited.
Aim
The Camp Coordinator, Madam Cecilia Fiaka, said the decision to hold a camp meeting for the youth to help deal with developmental inhibitions among high school dropouts was taken about four years ago.
She said she was always troubled on occasions when she visited her home town and saw pregnant young girls between the ages of 13 and 14 and young boys who had taken to smoking Indian hemp.
She said her initial attempt to help stem the incidence of truancy among the youth was to report them to the police but that did not yield enough dividend, as some of them ran away from home and stayed away over long periods.
But still determined to offer help, she said, she subsequently contacted the Hohoe Municipal Education Directorate for statistics on the number of pupils who got admitted to basic schools in the area and the number that stayed in school till completion.
Madam Fiaka said based on that, the foundation wrote proposals to institutions seeking partnership to help the youth in rural communities lead meaningful lives.