Afienya (GR), June 30 - The second Dangme West District Youth Mock Assembly (YMA) on Thursday took place at Afienya, in the Greater Accra Region with a communiqu=E9 urging government to establish a multi-purpose youth centre in the district to serve as a platform for the people to exhibit their talents.

They also called on the religious, traditional and political leaders to feature prominently in their speeches, issues concerning teenage pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's) and HIV/AIDS, poverty and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ARSH) in order to reduce the threat posed by these problems to the national development effort.

The mock assembly, which was instituted in November last year by the National Youth Council (NYC), in collaboration with the African Youth Alliance, an NGO was to empower the youth with leadership skills to enable them to assume the future responsibility of the country. The forum, whose members were drawn from the Youth Leadership Training Institute (YLTI), Afienya deliberated on the previous minutes and re-focused its agenda on the youth and adolescent development. The group appealed to the government to involve the youth in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes designed to bring changes in their environment. They also called on the authorities to pass a law banning children under 18 years from reading or viewing pornographic literature and films as well as cinemas and video houses showing such films.

Mr. Augustine Agblewornu, District Co-ordinating Director advised the youth in the area to stay away from trouble and take their education seriously. He said the district would continue to initiate programmes that supports the education of the youth, adding that the district was currently supporting 60 students in the tertiary institutions selected from the four traditional areas of the district.

Nene Tetteh Afutu III, Presiding Member of the Dangme West Assembly urged the youth to be disciplined and take their education serious to become useful citizens. He also advised the girls in the area to be cautious of the high incidence of STD's and HIV/AIDS since prevalence rate of the disease in the district were above the national average.