MoYS to impact volunteerism in Ghanaian youth – Minister

The Ministry of Youth and Sports is to embark on a tour to whip up the spirit of volunteerism in the Ghanaian youth, sector minister, Isaac Kwame Asiamah, has revealed. 

According to the minister, the spirit of volunteerism among the Ghanaian youth was dead and needed to be revived. 

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in Accra yesterday, Mr Asiamah who is also the Atwima-Mponua Member of Parliament (MP) said the trend which could be traced across Africa was worrying. 

He could not comprehend why 17-year olds who feature for the country at international competitions like soccer would want to be compensated financially. 

“Mr Chairman, the spirit of volunteerism is dying to the extent that 17-year olds who represent Ghana at competitions want to be paid and this is worrying,” he told the James Klutse Avedzi chaired committee. 

In his view, what children of that age deserved was bursaries and scholarships and other support services and not demands to be compensated financially.

“Those who raised this country did it on the basis of volunteerism and the spirit to die for this country. Money was not their pre- requisite but that is not the case today,” Mr Asiamah noted. 

The move to whip up the zeal for people to volunteer for Ghana, he said, was being pursued by the National Youth Authority and would be rolled out soon. 

He said some youth from 52 African countries converged on Ghana last year and volunteerism featured heavily on the agenda. 

The general feeling at that meeting, he said, was that the spirit of volunteerism was non-existent on the continent unlike in the past, something he stated needed the attention of everyone.

Touching on the youth training centres under the National Youth Authority,  Mr Asiamah said massive infrastructure development works were ongoing in all 11 centres across the country to equip them undertake their mandate of training the youth in technical and vocational ventures. 

“Cabinet has just approved a new policy direction of all the training institutions across the country to better position them to train their students,” he stated.

The centres, he said, would now be mainstreamed under the education ministry for proper certification and standardisation of their studies. 

By the introduction of the Free Senior High School programme, admission into the training institutes were dwindling hence the need to redirect the focus of these institutes, he noted. 

BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI