Africa-Press – Gambia. Mr James Owusu Ansah, Communications Director, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, West Africa, has urged parents to build strong family structures to support and nurture children who are the future leaders of the nation.
He noted that making support systems available and accessible to young people would allow them to discover their greatest potential and have the privilege to become confident and self-reliant.
Mr. Owusu Ansah made this statement in an interview on the sidelines of the 2022 Strengthening Families System Conference organised by the Church in Accra.
The fourth global conference which brought together participants from the West African countries was to build a stronger family system to empower the younger generation as well as inspire them to unearth their potential.
It was also aimed at ensuring support measures that would maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.
The theme for this year’s conference is, “strengthening the rising generation”.
He said families were the best unit of society, therefore strengthening the structures of communities would help develop stronger values and morals.
“What we want to do is to help the rising generation to discover their greatest potential and nurture it and become self-sufficient ultimately. You hear people go to school and come out to worry so much about jobs. So we want to encourage them and inspire minds to begin to think outside the box and acquire employable skills that will make them self-sufficient.”
The Communications Director added that there was the need to a holistic approach to build people spiritually and emotionally to improve on what they do.
Dr. Isatou Tourey, Former Vice President of the Gambia, recognized the importance of the family system, which she said was fundamental and could not be over emphasized, paying particular attention to challenges affecting people and the best support that families could provide and transform the lives of people, particularly, the younger generation.
She indicated that parents had a significant role to play in shaping their children adding that, “how you shape them, how you educate them, how you expose them and how we bring them up will determine their future”
Mrs Alice Alima Kala, Director for Greater Accra Regional Centre for National Culture, was overwhelmed with the initiative and described the move as very encouraging, saying it would offer young people opportunities to be gainfully employed and be self-reliant.
“This training is very commendable, we need this training for the youth, especially the Kayayei and many people out there without jobs. If they are equipped with training, that kind of pressure that is on them will be reduced for the benefit of themselves and the country as a whole”. She said.
At the conference, there was a panel discussion on youth empowerment, as well as an exhibition to showcase various works of young entrepreneurs to encourage the youth to explore and get trained for the job market and be able to fend for themselves.
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