NGOs being networked to co-ordinate activities

TEMA, Ghana, -- The Department of Social Welfare is networking the activities of all non-governmental organisation (NGOs) according to their fields of operation to ensure proper co-ordination in their attempt to support the needy.

This was meant to bring together all NGOs in the same field not to merge them but to educate them on government's programmes in their fields of operation so that they could effectively collaborate to avoid conflicts and repetition in programmes.

Mr Peter Amos Tweneboah-Kodua, Tema Municipal Welfare Officer of the Department of Social Welfare, announced this at the graduation ceremony for 81 students of the Solid African Mission (SAM) Computer Training School at Tema on Tuesday.

SAM, a Christian NGO established by Mr Gil-Jin Yang, a Korean missionary and his wife, Ko Kyung-Hee provides free computer training in Micro Soft Dos, Windows, Word Excel and Power Point for adult workers, the youth and the unemployed and further teaches them Christian values.

Mr Tweneboah-Kodua noted that with globalisation and Information Technology (IT) eating the fibre of every society, there was the need for all to acquire computer training to stay abreast with the time.

SAM must be commended since the courses run so far, benefited a number of civil servants, students and unemployed and saved them a lot of money.

It would have cost each student about 500,000 cedis in fees to acquire the skills they now had at any computer school.

Mr Gil-Jin said the school had trained 206 persons in batches of 50, 75 and 81 since its establishment a year ago. He said the school, which had only 18 computers currently intended to acquire about 100 more from Korea so that it could increase the enrolment.

He appealed to the Tema Municipal Chief Executive to assist it to acquire land to enable the Mission put up a permanent structure for its missionary and academic programme.

Mr Fuseini Ibn Alhassan, Deputy Co-ordinating Director of the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), who chaired the function, commended the Mission for the training being given the poor to build a better community.

He said IT was now the pivot of growth worldwide and Ghana must strive to grow fast or Ghanaians would be left behind on this earth when people were in space.

Mr Alhassan advised the centre to add advanced courses for students, who graduated from the school and promised to assist them to acquire the land for school's permanent site.