Fifth Youth Mock Assembly held at Kasoa

Kasoa (C/R) Oct. 23 GNA-The National Youth Council has put in place training programmes for the youth to acquire skills that would enable them to be self-supporting in future.

Mr. Archibald Donkor, Deputy National Youth Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council said this at the fifth Awutu-Effutu-Senya district Youth Mock Assembly at Kasoa on Friday.

It was organised by District Secretariat of the National Youth Council and Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Assembly in collaboration with Plan Ghana, an NGO based in the district.

It was under the theme: "Promoting and protecting the right and welfare of our children, our collective responsibility". The Assembly made up of selected school children between the ages of 14 and 18 enable them to use the occasion to deliberate on matters affecting their growth and welfare.

Some of the issues discussed were the dangers of drug abuse, child abuse, gambling, teenage pregnancy and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He called on parents to focus more on their children education since it is the bedrock of every nation's development. Mr. Ashalley Djan, the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Deputy Coordinating Director urged the children to be serious with the Youth Mock Assembly programme since it would help them to become good assembly members in future.

Mr. Jacob Turkson, Mankessim Area Plan Ghana Manager, expressed concern on the issues raised by the children and urged policy makers to help address the problems.

He said Plan Ghana has already started a programme to promote the welfare of children and therefore appealed to other NGOs to emulate them.

The district Youth Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council, Mr. Sodja Martey, said the concept also helps to foster unity, bridge the gab between the rural-urban youth through interactions and exchange of ideas.