Women's association at Min join campaign against HIV/AIDS

Mim (B/A) Oct 13, GNA- Achimota Women Association (AWA), an Accra-based NGO that began as a prayer group and later joined the campaign against the spread of HIV/AIDS, has outlined its plans to delve into methods of food security in the Asunafo District. Mr Samuel Abeokata, Project Coordinator of the Association, said this at the launch of the training of 30 young people in batik, tie and dye and "T" Shirt printing at Mim.
He said the NGO is engaged in serious talks with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), some Japanese charitable organizations and the Asunafo District Assembly to begin measures aimed at arresting post harvest losses.
Mr Aboekata said the talks are centred on the preservation and value addition to plantain, one of the major farm produce of the district.
He said the NGO is collaborating with Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) to construct an ultra-modern recreational complex for Mim to enhance keep fit exercises among the youth and the elderly.
The three-week batik training with sponsorship from the Ghana AIDS Commission will provide the 28 women and two men drawn from various organizations with employable skills to make them self-sufficient and capable of imparting the knowledge they would acquire to others in their communities.
In a speech read for him, Mr George Yaw Boakye, the Asunafo District Chief Executive, commended the NGO for its foresight to provide skill training for the youth in addition to the AIDS campaign. Mr Boakye lauded the NGO's plans to tackle food security, which he said had continued to disrupt the objectives of the District Assembly and its development partners.
The Executive Director of Achimota Women Association, Evangelist Janet Opoku, attributed indiscipline and violence among the youth on unemployment and frustrations among the youth. She appealed to parents and civil society to provide ways of productively engaging idle youth to minimize the upsurge of social vices.