Youngstars Development Initiative (YDI), Ghana has in collaboration with Generations For Peace (GFP), a Jordan based NGO launched a Sports for Peace for School Children (SPPC) project in Accra to equip school children with the requisite knowledge to champion peace building in their communities.
Launching the peace building initiative for school children at the St Peters Mission School located in the Adentan Municipality, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Adentan, Hon Emmanuel Nii Ashie-Moore underscored the significant role sports play in the promotion of peace and charged school children and the youth in general to propagate the message of peace in their communities to make Ghana more peaceful.
The MP commended the project initiators for choosing sports as a vehicle to promote peace building which he said cuts across all political, religious, ethnic and social boundaries.
Hon Ashie-Moore called on the organizers to partner with the assembly and relevant stakeholders in order to expand the scope of the project to reach a wider audience with the message of peace.
He also charged the general public to be proactive in ensuring cleanliness at all times avoid patronizing food in the open to avoid further cholera outbreak that has bedeviled the nation.
The lawmaker called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies on the need to ensure the separation of waste and provide enough bins whiles sensitizing the public to desist from improper modes of waste disposal.
The Programme Coordinator for Youngstars Development Initiative, Mr Kofi Ahovi said, the SPPC would work with an initial forty (40) selected school children between the ages of 11 and 14 years from the St Peters Mission School for six months on peace building activities using sport-based games as the medium for an integrated education to ensure behaviour change at the end.
“We expect that at the end of the programme, the lives and behaviours of the children would change and the will also impact this new life on their friends both in the school and at home and their families’’ Mr Ahovi said.
Country Director for YDI, Naa Adei Boateng acknowledged the importance of using sport, art, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment to transform conflict for peace building.
The use of these tools she said promotes values of youth leadership, community empowerment for conflict transformation, tolerance and responsible citizenship for national development.
Generations For Peace was founded by Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan and Sarah Kabbani, dedicated to sustainable peace building using the tools of sports and art.
GFP has trained and mentored over 8,400 volunteer youth leaders in 50 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.
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