30 volunteers in northern Ghana awarded
The Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), a non-governmental organization at the weekend presented various awards to voluntary national service personnel in the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions who distinguished themselves in discharging their duties.
In all, 30 personnel received awards which included certificates, bicycles and solar lamps as motivation to spur others on to put up their best.
Mr Eric Duorinaah, Programmes Manager of VSO advised service personnel to live exemplary lives and be committed to work since their service would be recognized. He urged them to cultivate the values of nationalism and patriotism.
Mr. Duorinaah said VSO in collaboration with the National Service Scheme (NSS) adopted the strategy to award hard working voluntary service personnel as a means of reducing poverty saying, “it is our overall effort to reduce poverty through the promotion of volunteerism”.
He said the VSO/NSS collaboration aimed at promoting volunteerism as a key instrument for improving the lives of poor people, especially in Northern Ghana, and that the collaborative work had given meaning under a five-year project known as “Tackling Education Needs Inclusively” (TENI), which sought to achieve systematic education change.
Mr. Duorinaah added that TENI also sought to improve transition, completion and quality basic education for some 49,000 disadvantaged children, particularly girls in three districts in Northern Ghana with a focus on West Mamprusi, Talensi/Nabdam and Jirapa.
He said under TENI, VSO through the NSS placed an average of 500 post-national service persons as national volunteers, saying majority were posted to remote communities that lacked professional teachers to help in both teaching and community mobilization.
He said though the prizes were not much, their value and recognition would improve the Curriculum Vitae (CV) of the recipients and serve as a form of motivation for them as well.
Mr Shaibu Abio, Acting Northern Regional Director of the NSS said volunteerism had become an integral part of nation-building and advised post-national service personnel to cultivate that habit.
Mrs Jennifer Asokewine, a product of Valley View University and a recipient, advised national service persons not to refuse postings to any part of the country, adding “God has a reason for everything.”
She recounted how she refused posting to the Talensi/Nabdam District when she completed her education because her family members advised her against it, but that through nationalism and patriotism she defied all odds and accepted the posting in the District.
She explained that through her acceptance to serve in the rural area, she was privileged to meet a young male nurse from the Bawku hospital who had married her, saying, “I am grateful to God for giving me a caring husband, a lovely baby girl and a certificate through National Service.
“Some of my colleagues in Accra who initially made mockery of me for traveling from Accra to serve in a remote village are yet to marry and some are still jobless as I speak. I bless the day I was posted to the North to serve”, she added
She urged service persons to accept postings to any part of the country.
Source: GNA