Raymond Ayinne, a Youth Activist, has expressed strong disappointment over the general disinterest of the youth in personal development and capacity-building programmes.
Mr. Ayinne, who has been part of the organisation of many youth-led and beneficial programmes, explained that it was unfortunate that young people do not participate in such programmes.
The conversation around participation in personal development programmes began after the host of A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith, shared some insights after leading the organisation of two youth-oriented programmes in the region over the last two years.
“I have been involved in a number of activities geared towards empowering young people, and you realise that despite all your marketing and promotional efforts, many young people are adamant. Let me digress a bit to say that the situation in the Upper East Region is not peculiar to Northern Ghana. If you go to Tamale and organise an event, and you put out a flyer, people contact you for details of the activities. That is the sort of demonstration of interest in their self-development. You also see that in the Upper West Region. In the case of the Upper West Region, 30 minutes before the start of the programme, the hall will be filled with people who have seen it and are chasing you to be part of it. People also call you and give you feedback on how to improve the programmes. The same cannot be said about the Upper East Region,” he said.
Mr. Ayinne, sharing a previous experience, explained that the GhanaThink Foundation, in partnership with the Youth Employment Agency, organised a job fair that was not heavily patronised.
“We did a job fair in Bolgatanga at the Catholic Social Centre. We used churches. We used mosques. We spoke to youth groups at the parliaments. That day, we had less than 50 percent of the target people we expected at the event. This was an event where we were training people on how to write CVs, cover letters, and how to attend interviews and pitch themselves. Very few people took part in it,” he recounted.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ayinne said politics had taken centre stage in the lives of young people. Even within politics, young people had formed unshakable thoughts about their various political parties and would not listen to or work with new information that may be made available to them.
He explained that for young people to begin to contribute meaningfully to the development of the Upper East Region, they must take self-development seriously.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
