Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has launched the National Youth Volunteers Programme (NYVP) to ignite the spirit of selflessness and volunteerism among Ghanaians towards national development.
In the next five years, the programme is expected to empower about 100,000 young Ghanaians to have the opportunity to volunteer in areas such as Agriculture, Education, Health, Afforestation, Community Self-Help Programme, Gender Mainstreaming among other modules.
The NYVP, a flagship programme of the National Youth Authority (NYA), was launched under the theme, “Mobilising Youthful Hearts for Volunteers Service in National Development.”
Though young people between the ages of 18-35 years would have the opportunity to volunteer in the modules, the programme allows any person interested to volunteer with a particular expertise.
According to the Vice President, the programme would offer the young people of Ghana the opportunity to chart a new cause of actions for the country.
He observed that Ghana was still a developing country and had a lot of people with knowledge, experience and enthusiasm and therefore, “we should not wait for volunteers to come from other countries to do what we have the capacity to do ourselves.”
“This programme is a means to rekindle patriotism, propriety, discipline and civic responsibility within the youth providing framework for streamlining volunteerism activities,” he indicated.
Young Ghanaians, he said, as a result of the programme, would be provided to contribute their quota to national development by fixing problems in their communities right to the national level, stressing “volunteerism can contribute as much as 2.4 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.”
He was of the view that the programme would create a generation of Ghanaian political leaders, entrepreneurs, religious and traditional leaders and people of all trade “who can envision a grand agenda to address challenges impeding our journey to our glorious destination.”
Dr Bawumia touched on an ongoing modernisation of all national vocational training institutes and opportunity industrialisation centres to equip the youth with skills towards national development adding,”so far, 17 of the technical and vocational institutes across the country are being upgraded and modernised.”
The Vice President indicated that the government was determined to improve on human development approach to ensure no one was left behind.
“We have, before us, the opportunity to change the narratives of what the youth of Ghana is about,” for the betterment of the country.
Mr Pius EnamHadzide, Chief Executive of the NYA, indicated that Ghanaians had strived to honour the tradition of service bequeathed to them by forebears by fostering a sense of national unity and social cohesion among the youth, but “there is a decline of values that make us Ghanaian.”
He was worried that the industry and innovation that once defined Ghanaian life had been replaced by a certain entitlement which “justifies activities such as fraud, illegal mining, political vigilantism, joining land guards and other vices as acceptable consequences of being denied handouts.”
The Chief Executive said “we believe that volunteerism provides the perfect avenue to instigate this change, we shall organise the youth to apply their faculties, energies and abilities to sectors where they are needed the most to drive national development one community at a time”.
“We shall build the self-reliant, persevering young Ghanaians who will not flee in search of a better life elsewhere because the going is tough,butwho will put in the work to ensure that posterity have it easier,” he intoned.
He appealed to corporate bodies and development partners to throw their weight behind the programme and support its implementation and expansion.
Nana Addai Gyamera, Chief of Feyiase, who represented the Asantehene, OtumfuoOsei Tutu ll, stressed the support of Asanteman for the implementation and success of the programme.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
