Dr. Musheibu Mohammed Alfa, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, has appealed to the Ghana Red Cross Society Volunteers to extend their support to the Ghana Education Service to help improve the quality of teaching in schools.

They should also support the Ghana Education Service to implement effective school management system, increase awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention, and environmental hygiene to prevent malaria and cholera.

Dr. Alfa was addressing the National Youth Camp of the Ghana Red Cross Youth in Wa, as part of its volunteering endeavours to work with community based organisations that promote livelihoods options for people with disabilities and access to quality basic education.

He gave the assurance that government was much concerned about the challenges facing the youth, particularly in the areas of employment, education, housing, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, youth violence and crime.

In that regard, government had initiated pragmatic policies to addressing those concerns to ensure that young people were properly integrated into the society and were made to work in the public interest, such as peace building, communal work and upholding the cherished values of society.

“It is worrying to see our youth indulging in social vices such as drug abuse, robbery, gayism, lesbianism and fraud among others”, he lamented.

Dr. Alfa encouraged parents and elders to inculcate in the youth, the positive aspects of Ghana’s culture and traditions, and also set Godly examples for them to emulate.

Mr. Kofi Addo, Secretary General of Ghana Red Cross Society, said the camp was organised to train the youth in leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills and first aid among others.

He said the aim was to prepare and groom its youth to take over the reins of leadership, since it has the largest volunteers in Ghana, with a population of 60,000 people.

The camp would focus on training the youth in first aid and Ebola, and it is expected that they would share the information in the communities through awareness creation.

The Ghana Red Cross was established by an act of parliament (Act 10, 1958), to serve as an auxiliary to government ministries, departments and agencies in the delivery of relief and humanitarian services to the vulnerable during emergencies.