By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Oct 7, GNA – Afri-Youth, a youth empowerment non-governmental organisation, has held a competition on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for senior high schools to strengthen students’ active involvement in attaining the Goals.
Dubbed: “Afri-Youth Senior High Schools Community Impact Challenge on SDGs”, the competition is an annual social impact event, which seeks to empower students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers in their communities.
The third edition of the project was organised in partnership with MTN Ghana, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – GH) and Power to Youth Ghana, a consortium of three organisations comprising Norsaac, Songtaba and GH SRHR Alliance.
Participating schools included Tamale Girls, Kalpohin, Ambariya, Business, and Northern School of Business senior high schools.
Mr Mohammed Gadafi Mandeya, the Executive Director of Afri-Youth, during the event in Tamale, said it was to build the interest of students in the attainment of the SDGs in Ghana.
It aimed to afford them the opportunity to develop innovative ideas to reduce the effects of climate change, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and reproductive health issues as well as sanitation and hygiene.
“Unlike the previous two editions, where we had to literally provide them with intensive training, this time around, they were able to embark on their project works with very minimal supervision. It shows their improvement,” he said.
Mr Mandeya expressed the need for government, civil society organisations and NGOs to demonstrate more interest in supporting young people to play active roles in achieving the SDGs.
Mr Mohammed Awal Alhassan, the Executive Director of Norsaac, called on the participants to prioritise the implementation of their innovative ideas to address the challenges confronting their communities.
He said the impact challenge competition must be scaled up to cover more second cycle institutions to involve more students in the region.
Northern School of Business SHS was adjudged winners after their project work presentation on attaining SDG target 3.7, which called for universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services by 2030.
Participants expressed gratitude to the organisers for providing them the platform to contribute towards Ghana’s growth and development.
GNA