Mrs Emily Adevor, Adaklu/Agotime Partnership Facilitator of Child and Youth Development Centres of Compassion International, Ghana says children should be given the necessary platform and encouragement to develop their innate skills. 'Let us give our children the platform to identify and nurture their innate talents, skills, and knowledge for them to be self-reliant and useful to society,' she noted. Mrs Adevor said this at the closing ceremony of a five-day skills development camp for selected participants from some Child and Youth Development Centres (CYDCs) in the cluster in Ho. The CYDCs were set up by Frontline Church Partners in collaboration with Compassion International, Ghana (CIG), a Christian Non-profit making organization that releases children from poverty in Jesus' name and serves as an advocate for children and equipping them to fulfil their God-given potential. Mrs Adevor noted that as children grow older, they should be offered jobs and entrepreneurial skills, adding that, this would ena ble those who could not climb the academic ladder to be self-reliant. She said the total development of children at the various CYDCs was very dear to CIG adding, 'We want to see results in the four facets of the spiritual, physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development of our children.' She encouraged Child and Youth Development Workers at the various Centres to take Youth programming seriously and make skills training part of their extracurricular activity. She advised them to introduce what the children learnt at the camp into their Saturday programming to enable those who were not fortunate to participate in the camp meeting to also acquire such skills. The Project Facilitator said the camp offered the participants the opportunity to learn skills such as bead making, sewing and embellishment. The children were also taken through topics like personal hygiene and teenage pregnancy, among others. Mrs Adevor urged participants not to hesitate to always practice what they learned at the camp to buil d on it. Master Lawrence Dikro, a participant told the Ghana News Agency that he had gained more insight into why it was necessary to acquire marketable skills as a youth and was grateful for the opportunity offered him. Ms Jessica Akato, another participant, also said she would now take her personal hygiene seriously as she was now aware of the repercussions of its neglect. Ms Brilliant Aklamanu, a participant, noted that participating in the Camp had offered her an opportunity to acquire skills in embellishment which she hoped to develop. Ms Agatha Edinam Ezu was full of praise for the organizers of the Camp and called on them to periodically organize it to benefit others. She said she had not only learnt other skills in addition to bead making but also gained more insight into the dangers of teenage pregnancy and how to avoid it. Participants from Adaklu Waya Global Evangelical Church CYDCs entertained their colleagues and guests by performing a choreography. Source: Ghana News Agency