A/R: MTN Climax 21 Days of Y'ello Care With Youth Empowerment

Telecoms Giant MTN crowned its 21 days of Y'ello Care on Friday in the Ashanti region with a series of youth empowerment activities.

This year’s theme “creating a bright future for the youth,” afforded some 200 youth in the Ashanti and northern parts of Ghana, free training in lucrative vocations including beads making and accessories; tech and e-commerce, and hair and makeup art.

MTN together with the National Youth Authority (NYA) presented certificates, tablets and other start-up kits, tools and materials to the beneficiaries who were also schooled in financial management.

Northern Sector Technical Manager for MTN, Charles Osei Akoto told Ultimate News, the theme for this year’s event mirrored the need for the country to build resourceful youth to secure the future of Ghana.

“This year, we focused on the youth in three areas which were online marketing beads and make-up art and it is possible next year we will [pick a different angle to groom our youth so that Ghana can have a youth well prepared for a future better life," he stated.

The beneficiaries were filled with excitement and hopeful the training and support will help them generate income for themselves.

“I have learnt how to use beads for necklaces, bags and footwear all for free. MTN also provided food everyday of the training and I am going to produce more and sell,” an elated Grace Asare admitted.

Another beneficiary Louis Ankoma recounted, “I was in the IT class where we were taught how to build a website and now we have our own YouTube channels where we can upload advertisements and other videos and hope that it gets monetized,”

The team pitched camps at the Kumasi Anglican Senior High School Auditorium where students were taken through the nuances of substance abuse and the growing scare of cybercrime.

The event was facilitated by psychiatrist and CEO of Free Think Health Consult; John Paul Omuojine and the Northern Regional Coordinator for E-Crime Bureau Dominic Alokopo.

The seminar came in timely for the students who made resolutions to up their caution in the areas of cyber security, unethical hacking, responsible social media usage, cyber bullying and abstinence from narcotic drugs.

All work and no play were definitely not going to be the best bet for the MTN Team. The yellow 11 battled it out on the pitch with the school team of the Kumasi Anglican Senior High School – Women for penalties and the men for the real game of football.

At the end of the last whistle, MTN had beaten the students after a 1-1 draw pushed the game into spot kicks.

Ashanti Regional Territory Sales Controller Samuel Owusu Baah indicated, “after all this work, we want our brand to be more affiliated to the local community that they don’t only see us as only taking their monies but also as an organisation that is focussed on the wellbeing of the communities in which we operate. Overall the youth dominates the population and once we target them, obviously, we will have good people who can foster development and growth in the country.”

Suame Service Centre Branch Head, Douglas Obeng emphasised that, “we really want them to be responsible citizens in Ghana as we keep saying the youth are the future leaders of the country. It is exciting seeing them being empowered this way and it means that Ghana has a future.”

This year will be the thirteenth year of the MTN 21 days of Y'ello Care in all the 22 countries where the telecoms giant has its footprints.