A section of the participants
The National Youth Authority (NYA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has commenced engagement with stakeholders on the National Youth Volunteer Programme(NYVP).
In a keynote address, the Youth and Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif, said the government of President Akufo-Addo had proven that it can provide credible leadership in enhancing the capacity of the youth to develop and take up the mantle of leadership tomorrow.
According to him, young people across the globe face many challenges in their quest to build a better and brighter future for themselves, with the situation dire n Africa where majority of the youth are either unemployed or unskilled.
He, however, commended the National Youth Authority for sticking to its core mandate and recognising young people as a major driving force in contributing to national growth and development.
The National Youth Volunteer Programme is being carried out on the theme “Mobilizing Youthful Hearts for Volunteer Service in National Development.”
The Minister recounted how the National Youth Authority in 2018 facilitated about 10 youth voluntary work camps with a total of 300 volunteers across the country.
“This was scaled up in 2019 to twenty-two youth voluntary camps with a total of seven hundred and ten volunteers nationwide, and NYA also engaged close to 500 young volunteers as part of their public education campaigns on the need to adopt healthy practices and to curb the spread of Covid-19 at the peak of the pandemic in 2020,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer of NYA, Pius Enam Hadzide, said over next five years, some 100,000.young Ghanaians are expected to be recruited onto one of the thirteen modules of the programme.
Youth empowerment
The NYVP, he said, comprises Youth Work Volunteers Module, Agriculture Volunteers Module, Education Volunteers/Special Need Caretaker, Infrastructure Volunteers, Health and Well-Being Volunteers, Environment Volunteers, Sports and Recreation Volunteers and Science, Research and Technology Volunteers Modules.
Others are Arts and Culture Volunteers, Gender Mainstreaming Volunteers, Entrepreneurship/Mentorship Volunteers, Governance, Democracy and Leadership Volunteers and Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Volunteers Modules.
According to him, the move is an opportunity for young Ghanaians to serve in their own communities and in other communities across the country in contributing to national development while they earn modest sums in supporting themselves.
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