Children and Youth in Broadcasting- Curious Minds Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, in partnership with the UNICEF Ghana, has organised a colloquium for young people in the Nkwanta South Municipality of the Oti Region. An initiative of the Movement for Change Adolescent Health Ambassadors, based in Nkwanta South, the programme was under the theme, 'Eliminating Harmful Practices for Sustainable Development in the Oti Region.' Mr Bernard Joachim Potakey, the Executive Coordinator, Movement for Change Adolescent Health Ambassadors, told the Ghana News Agency, in an interview that the programme, offered a platform to create awareness on challenges facing the youth. He said it had become necessary to engage young people to dialogue on some harmful practices affecting the youth and how to eradicate them as well as issues of gender base violence in society. He mentioned some of these practices as drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, school dropout, alcoholism and pre-marital sex. Mr Potakey said the participants identified some of the challenges, causes and the effects of these practices, and identifying some solutions to end the menace. Representatives from the Social Welfare Department, Municipal Assembly, Police and Immigration Services, World Vision Ghana, UNICEF, Ghana Education Service, as well as political leaders among others participated in the colloquium. Pertinent issues discussed included human trafficking, the punishment for the criminal act and the effects on the society, early sex amongst teenagers and its effect on the family and the society at large. Dr Samuel Klu, a Child Protection Advocate, World Vision Ghana, also urged parents to make their children their friends to create lasting bonds and platforms to vent out their challenges to redress than resorting to peers. 'We need to engage stakeholders, parents and the children in this kind of dialogue to identify the problems that influence these young ones into engaging themselves in these harmful practices. We must not only focus on the blame game as to whether it is the parents or child but rather find solutions,' he said. He said by doing so, both parents and children would know their respective responsibilities. Miss Mavis Aryee, a representative of Curious Minds Ghana, urged parents not to engage their children in things that would harm them physically, emotionally, mentally or psychologically. She advised her peers not to follow the things of the world when they did not have the capacity, but to remain focused on their career for the enhancement of their future.

Source: Ghana News Agency