Accra, Nov. 22, GNA - Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, on behalf of government has commended the Good News Evangelical Mission International (GONEMI) for its efforts to curb armed robbery and other anti-social vices in the country.

He said, "Government acknowledged and highly appreciated your project that embarked on massive treatment, rehabilitation and conversion of well over 100 drug addicts, armed robbers, common thieves, pick pockets, tricksters, male and female prostitutes and destitutes from the Tema Community One who are now baptized Christians with the Mission." This was contained in a speech read on behalf of the Minister by Mr. Lawrence A. Azam, Deputy Director of the Department of Social Welfare to mark the 5th anniversary celebrations and the 5th National General Assembly of the Mission at Darkuman in Accra.

It was under the theme: Affecting the World with the Word of God; Finding Solutions to Pertinent Social Problems based on Mathew Chapter 28 verses 18-20.

The Minister said government, and for that matter National Security, was on high alert over the recent armed robberies in the country some of which had resulted in the loss of lives, including those of the security agencies. Mr. E.T. Mensah said the President, His Excellency Professor John Evans Atta Mills, was concerned about these happenings and that government was taking steps to curb the unemployment situation in the country which contributed to the increase in armed robbery. He said government would come out with new modules under the National Youth Employment Programme to absorb unemployed youth into productive ventures, thereby curbing the unemployment situation in the country. The Minister said Government would equip the few psychiatric hospitals in the country to cater for those with drug addiction and its related issues from the grassroots level.

He hinted that the Department of Social Welfare under his Ministry would be encouraged and supported to reactivate its Group Work activities which would engage the youth in leisure time activities so that no room was left for idleness.

The Minister said government would set up Vocational Training Centres in all regional capitals and districts to provide skills training for the youth and also to curb streetism in the country. The Reverend Godson King Akpalu, General Overseer of GONEMI, said the Mission aimed at bringing salvation to all in absolute truth, and thereby directed its attention and efforts to the rural areas where much of the Christian work in the country actually lay.

He said for the five years of its existence, GONEMI had established 17 branches which were aggressively winning souls for Christ, adding that those newly won into Christianity had seen a world of difference in their lives and communities. The Rev. Akpalu observed that the problem of drug addicts, armed robbery and other social vices in the country today were alarming and that government alone, through law enforcement and punishment for offenders, could not curb those vices. He, therefore, appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, establish a well planned and fully equipped rehabilitation centres where the word of God would be used to rehabilitate the so called social misfits. 22 Nov. 10