Peace Games To Be Staged on Sept 21

The global peace games for youth and children, celebrated world-wide and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1988, would be staged in Ghana on Friday, September 21, at the Tema SOS Village.

The Decade programme, which kick-starts this year, would focus on and develop the leadership skills of children and youth in the mission of global friendship, non-violence and peace.

It would also involve children and youth in making decisions about their lives. Kojo Quarshie, Programme Director of Play Soccer, an NGO funded by FIFA and one of the four organisers, said the idea is to inculcate in the children, the importance of a peaceful world through games and to forestall any future war.

He said the programme would include a cultural display and a play to highlight the effects of war and why the need to have a peaceful world. "It would combine sports, music, education and any other activity for the purpose of involving children and youth to achieve the targeted results", he added

The other organisers are the UN, FIFA and the SOS.

According to the UN programme, countries are to organise the events within the month of September, preferably on the 11th, which is the International Day of Peace.

Quarshie, who has been associated with soccer administration in the country for a very long time, said even though the programme is supposed to be nation-wide, it is dependent on the response they would get from their targeted sponsors.

He said almost every financial institution and some selected companies in the country have been written to, and expressed the hope that it would receive favourable response.