Accra, Oct. 30, GNA - Some selected Ghanaian youth have been listed to participate in a Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) Youth Summit in Ethiopia, aimed at insulating them against crime.

The week-long conference on the theme: "From Subject to Citizen: African Youth Claiming their Space, Influencing for Positive Transformation, aspire to prevent the phenomenon of young people being used by self-seeking political leaders to perpetuate violence and other offences. Mr Prosper K Hoeyi, General Secretary of YMCA, Ghana, made this known in a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency.

It said: "We have all been witness to various forms of violence in Ghana. and it is always the youth that perpetrate these crimes, when in actual fact they are being instigated and even funded by political, ethnic or religious leaders."

Commenting on the Summit, YMCA volunteer and Summit lead facilitator Vezi Mncwango said most youth suffer from a poverty of dignity and self-actualisation.

"Their lack of belief in themselves is exacerbated by their isolation and marginalisation from all spheres of positive participation from community to continental level. Current youth development initiatives are more focused on providing youth with life skills and information to make better life choices.

"However empirical evidence shows that these alone are not sufficient to restore youth dignity and self belief. This Summit is therefore not only aimed at skilling up youth participants, but more fundamentally at reshaping and transforming their model of the world from being on the effect side to the cause side of life, he said.

Mncwango noted that the conference is a major programme, which permeates the programmes and events of YMCA Ghana and Africa, with the strongest desire and hope to reverse the unfortunate trend.

Ghana will host a Partnership Conference of the body in May next year, during which more efforts will be made to drive home the agenda. The YMCA is an organisation that stands for the development of young people in body, mind and spirit in a way that will make them useful and productive citizens.

In Ghana, the mission is to empower the youth for the African renaissance by building their civic competence and economic capability to influence policies that affect them as well as enable them to derive their own livelihoods. 30 Oct. 09