Communal Labour Spirit Among Ghanaians Should Be Revived

Participants at an ongoing two-day partners' seminar to deliberate on a faith transformational development have called on educational authorities to include in the curriculum of pupils and students the habit of communal labour to promote national development.

Organised by the World Vision International-Ghana, the focus of the meeting is to collaborate with the Church to find effective ways of working among the poor and vulnerable persons especially children, to realise their full potentials in life.

The seminar which attracted representatives of various churches, Children Ministry leaders, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, UNICEF and the media, noted that the country was losing the spirit of voluntarism and therefore people now found it difficult to reach out to others.

Others also, such as faith-based institutions think the onerous was on government to meet the needs of the poor, which was making the poor and the weak vulnerable.

Leading a discussion, Mrs Comfort Lartey-Ofori, the National Executive Director of GHACOE Women's Ministry blamed Christians, who formed about 72 per cent of the Ghanaian population for not using its strong force to push authorities to provide the basic needs of the less endowed.

The discussants should take up advocacy for such people so that government would take up from there,' the participants noted.

To them, available resources of the Church, its influence and the offices of Christians could be used to advance the course of the vulnerable in the society, they stressed.

The Discussants said Christianity was a holistic ministry but, noted that majority have left out the responsibility of taking care of the poor among other developmental projects, because it was not their priority.

Participants suggested that children's programmes such as 'Super Book,' be used in educating the youth in order to build in them the spirit of patriotism, volunteerism and showing kindness to neighbours.

Mr Dickens Thunde, the Director for World Vision-Ghana, said the Organisation, made up of Christian entities, wanted to go beyond transaction and build a transformational relationship which identified a problem and found solution to it.

Mr Thunde said though the Organisation was a Christian one, it services were extended to all manner of persons, irrespective of one's faith and promised that it will partner the Church to help sustain its programmes.