Churches advised to create job opportunities for youth

Kumasi, July 11, GNA - Churches have been called upon to demonstrate practical affection for the progress of the youth, by injecting a greater percentage of their tithes and collections into the creation of job opportunities for the unemployed youth of their congregations.

Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for Kwabre West, who made the call said this was imperative since it was when the youth were gainfully employed that they would be able to actively participate and also contribute significantly to development projects of the church and society.

Odeneho Appiah made the call at the mid-year harvest of the Four Garrison Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church at the Uaddara Barracks, in Kumasi on Saturday.

The harvest was held to raise funds in aid of the construction of a 400 million cedis computer school, to make computer education more accessible to people at the Uaddara Barracks and its environs. The project, which will comprise classrooms, computer laboratory, library and a staff common room, is being funded through periodic harvests, donations and church collections.

Odeneho Appiah expressed dismay at the conduct of some churches that neglect the concerns of the youth, especially the unemployment problem and rather give priority to pumping huge sums of monies into the decoration and expansion of church buildings.

Odeneho Appiah, who is also the former President of Youth in Action, a network of youth groups, reminded the churches that they run the risk of loosing membership, and requisite funds for development of the church and other social projects, if they continued to ignore the youth, as they constituted the majority of the congregation.

"The people constitute the church and not the magnificent buildings and if the church has to survive and grow, it is crucial that it places a higher premium on their economic and social progress," he stressed. Elder Francis Asante, Elder in-charge of projects of the Four Garrison SDA church, announced that the church had already mobilised 100 million cedis in readiness for the execution of the computer school project.

Fifteen million cedis was realised at the harvest.