Author: Raphael Kobina Nyame
The rate at which the moral standards of the youth in the deprived and rural communities in Ghana keep degenerating is at alarming rates.
As I Grow, a nonprofit organization whose priority areas of interventions are centered on uplifting the living standards of the people in deprived communities and finding lasting solutions to their plights has expressed concerns.
The NGO has been fighting for better education, general rural development, prevention of teenage pregnancy, women empowerment, water and sanitation, youth Empowerment, and agricultural development in the agrarian communities in Ghana.
In view of these plights, the organization has bemoaned how Ghana is silently losing her youth to social vices and negative moral behaviors.
Speaking to Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac, the chief Executive officer of (As I Grow) bemoaned how the youth have taken to smoking of weed and drinking, gambling, and sex trading in these communities.
He said it has become fashion and a lifestyle in these communities. This has led to increased school dropouts, high mortality rates, and rampant teenage pregnancies.
He lamented that “if care is not taken, Ghana will lose about sixty percent (60%) of her abled youth in the next decade.
He went on to say that one of the major causes of these lifestyles is the Okada business which has introduced most of the youth as low as twelve years (12) to money thus dropping out of school”
“Some young girls go to the extent of trading in sex with these Okada guys. This sex business in the deprived communities has led to unplanned pregnancies and death of the girls who engage in unsafe abortions”
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac, therefore, called on the government, social welfare department, ministry of gender, NGOs, and other philanthropists to trickle down their activities and action plans to some of these deprived communities in order to help shape the future of these youth.
He went on to say (As I Grow) Organization is doing its best to help these youth as he said his outfit has been to more than fifty (50) communities in the fight against the various menaces.
