The 2017 PeaceJam Ghana Youth leadership Conference was successfully held over the weekend at the University of Ghana Legon in Accra.

The Conference which was under the auspices of the West Africa Centre for Peace Foundation brought together youth (PeaceJammers) drawn from some Junior and Senior High schools in Accra, Western and the Eastern Region to learn about non violent ways of problem solving, promote peace and to instill in them a sense of patriotism.

The 2 day conference which featured the 1976 Noble Peace Laureate Betty Williams from Ireland, brought together about thousand five hundred youth including students from Uganda and Nigeria together with some adult mentors and teachers. Present at the conference were the sponsor of peaceJam in Ghana Mr. Braine Kelly, Hon. Samiah Nkrumah, director of programmes for PeaceJam Foundation Doc. Kate Kumbo among other dignitaries.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Saturday June 24, Mrs. Betty Williams said women are the key agents to changing "a world afflicted by war, hunger, social, economic and political upheaval."

She called for support for women to enable them take their rightful place in various sectors of the economy and especially in governance to ensure that "people got what rightfully belonged to them" whiles promoting peace and development. This she said are expedient because women and children largely bore the brunt of bad leadership in any country.



"Unfortunately, you need some level of power to change situations around so women must get involved and change the politics to bring about the desired results we want as a people," she stated.

Citing her personal experience in an interaction with the students, Mrs. Williams urged the youth to turn their frustrations and anger about the ills in society into meaningful ventures to positively impact their communities.
"I was angered by the decades of violence and killing of innocent children as a young girl in Northern Ireland and that pushed me to organise a peace march which brought together about 35,000 people to protest violence in that country,” she disclosed.

The Noble Peace Prize Winner and founder of the World Centre of Compassion for Children said, her outfit will soon build cities of peace in some countries including Ghana to provide children with strong political voice to get government to respond to their issues."



For his part, the Executive Director of the West Africa Centre for Peace Foundation, Mr. Wisdom Addo explained that the PeaceJam project had as part of its core mandate to train young people on peace building, community service and human development to change some ills in the Ghanaian society.

He attributed the pockets of violence seen in some parts of the country to weak institutions, dishonesty on the part of duty bearers and lack of free flow of information which sometimes agitated the youth to take the law into their hands.

He implored Ghanaians to develop a listening attitude which was "critical in calming down tempers when people are angry… Read more