400 children undergo career counseling at Koforidua
Four hundred Compassion Ghana-assisted children, drawn from the Accra West Cluster, have undergone a five-day career counseling at a vacation camp at the Pope John Secondary School, Koforidua.
The VacationC was financed with funds from Compassion's Complimentary Interventions at the Global Ministry Centre, Colorado Springs.
The theme for the camp was 'Created for God's purpose,' and aimed at equipping the 400 children, between the ages of 9 and 14, with the necessary skills to improve their spiritual, cognitive, physical and socio-emotional developments, as well as help the children to begin to conceive and develop their plans for tomorrow.
Essentially, the children were expected to develop service and social skills, self worth and respect, learn and understand the challenges of adolescence, understand salvation and assurance of salvation in order to become fulfilled Christian adults, develop communications skills, and learn how to socialise with their classmates.
Mr. Fred Kwaku Asamoah, an ex-teacher at St. Theresa's School and a child counselor, led the children to understand that God created mankind in his own image.
He explained that since every man or woman was once a child, children were central to God's plans for mankind. For that reason mankind (children inclusive) should expect blessings from their creator.
Junior Achievement Ghana was on hand to give the children career counseling. Kobina Kugblenu and Seth Tandoh, resource persons from Junior Achievement, helped the children to understand the various categories of jobs, such as technical: (Carpenters, Engineers, Electricians), artistic: ( Graphic Designer, Architect, Fashion Designer etc.), investigative: (Police, Journalist, Social Worker), social: (Doctors, Teachers, Lawyers etc), enterprising: (Politicians, Businessmen, Sportsmen, etc.) and conventional: (Bankers, Secretary, Accountants etc).
During the interactive session, all the children demonstrated their understanding of the various professions or vocations, and the tools and resources they use for their jobs. The most important part of camp was a session on the challenges confronting adolescents in a fast changing world.
A Deputy Director of Education and the President of the Guidance Counselors Association, Mrs. Shine Agatha Ofori, led the discussion on moral values and manners. She explained to the children that there were individual values and group values, and that an individual holds certain values that shape his/her future.
She also shed light on character formation, saying when we do virtuous things over and over again, they become our habit, and eventually form our character. This means, if someone is said to have good character, he/she might have developed many virtuous behaviours as a result of regular practice.
She explained to the children that they all needed to develop values that would enhance their wholistic development- spiritually, physically, mentally and socially. In doing this, the children should also consider the ethical or moral requirements that make them all-round beings.
Mrs. Ofori made a strong case for the children to imbibe Christian values and shun conventional or worldly values. 'Valuing God, determines what else one should value. The closer we get to God, the better our values towards the things of God, our values are shaped in his likeness. (Matt. 6:33),' she advised the children.
The session on drug abuse was equally informative. The children were told that 'drug abuse is the use of drugs for purposes other than their intended use. Mrs. Ofori explained that 'if a student uses a drug to keep him/her awake in order to learn, it is a form of drug abuse.
She said cocaine falls in the category of drugs like, Amphetamines or Stimulants, which are supposedly used to make them 'feel high'. 'This excitement does not last long. Soon, the user becomes restless, has nervous a breakdown, nausea, and becomes paranoid,' she pointed out.
She said the next commonly abused drugs are Opiates (an example of Opiate is 'heroin'). According to Mrs. Ofori, these are powerful painkillers that have very horrible side-effects. She told the children that these drugs cause users to feel restless, have nausea, and vomit.
The counselor expressed worry at the proliferation of alcoholic beverages, and cited apketeshie and the numerous gin-bitters (that are so glorified through radio and TV advertisements), as the commonly abused beverages, and asked children to stay away from them. 'Like all other drugs, alcoholic beverages make people feel different, and make them do things they would not do under normal circumstances, but as Christians, the Bible admonishes us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and not wine (Eph. 5:18).'
The writer is the Programme Communications Manager of Compassion International Ghana
Pix: A section of the children listening to the talk from one of the resource persons