24.3.2010

Earth Charter Youth Group in Ghana visited a development centre

This activity report is written by Godfred Nana Asiedu Opoku, an Earth Charter Youth Group coordinator from Ghana.

“We at the Earth Charter Youth Group for Sustainability and Peace Ghana take this opportunity to say thank you to the international youth facilitator for her never ceasing supports she gives us. She’s a real good source of inspiration to us in Ghana.

Before, I became a social worker, I was working in the travel and tourism industry but something touched me to serve the less and underprivileged in my community and beyond hence the ECYG for Sustainability and Peace Ghana. It has always been my uttermost desire to see that children in my community have access to better education since they are the future leaders.

It is believed that when children in schools are provided with the basic amenities needed for their early childhood development, their brains develop well and as a result, these children will be critical thinkers, problem solvers as well as good leaders who can make good policies to change the lives of other children in the communities they grew up from.

As I embarked on this visit to the development centre, I was shocked and surprised to see the kind of teaching materials the children use for their class work and other activities assigned by the class teacher. They had no library, no proper teaching boards and not even proper school uniforms to wear to school.

Some of these children have the potentials of becoming good leaders in society and even the nation at large. I therefore decided to provide textbooks, pens, pencils and also see that the school children enjoy proper early childhood development.

A time will come when school children in the Ghanaian less developed communities will have better childhood development. It is about time we invest in their lives for them to have that better access to good education. The principles and values of the Earth Charter will continue to be our guide in our activities as well as projects.”