Forum discusses youth role in community development
Voice in Community Empowerment (VoiCE) in collaboration with Millennium Cities Initiatives (MCI) on Saturday organized a community youth forum at Kanda in the North Ayawaso Constituency in Accra.
The forum brought together youth groups, opinion leaders, Imams, Christian and Muslims leaders and assemblymen in the area.
It was on the theme: “The role of youth in community development through volunteerism”. It discusses issues on how the youth should actively participate in community development.
Mr Alhassan Abdul-Rashid, Environment and Community Consultant at MCI said it was a common knowledge that youth all over the world had been marginalized in terms of contributing to decision making and solving problems.
He said youth in recent years were playing an increasingly important role in the development of their communities and that they had the power to generate new idea to solve the problems of society.
Mr Abdul-Rashid said many policy makers had argued strongly that youth should be included in every national development effort for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Mr Ahmed Mohammed Gedel, a lecturer at the Accra Polytechnic, said there was the need to empower the youth to participate in socio-economic development.
He said the MCI had partnered VoiCE to empower the youth in Nima and Mamobi and that the sustenance of the project was based on the performance rating.
Mr Gedel, who is also a Board Member of VoiCE, said so far the organization had acquired litter bins, and also trained people in mobile phone repaire and bag weaving.
He said VoiCE’s expectation was that Government would support the idea and appealed to donor agencies to support its course.
Mr Hafiz Abibakar, an assembly member for Mamobi East in his contribution put the less development syndrome blame on political leaders in the area, especially Members of Parliament.
VoiCE, established in 2010, has made contributions to communities that extends far beyond its initial actions and want to involve others in creating a group of caring and concerned citizens that give of their time to help others and the community at large.
Source: GNA