Bolgatanga, Aug 25, GNA - An official of the National Youth Council (NYC) has called on the government to speed up the implementation of the national youth policy to give the country's youth a direction and a better future.

Mr Sulemana Braimah, Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the NYC, said the youth have been neglected for a very long time and that the country stands to have a gloomy picture if it continues to fail to recognize the need to have a vision for its youth.

He said this when he launched the Bolgatanga branch of Youth Action on Reproductive Order (YARO), an organization that promotes welfare of the youth through health education.

Mr Braimah said the success of every country depends on its ability to groom its youth effectively through policy initiatives and implementation adding that as future administrators of this country the youth should be given the necessary attention and have stake in the running of the country.

The Executive President of YARO, Mr Douri Benin, said his outfit seeks to empower the youth to live a safe reproductive health lifestyle with emphasis on abstinence from pre-marital sex through the promotion of virginity using Information Communication Education (ICE) strategies. He said the organization has about 400 virgins in the Northern and Upper West regions and gives financial support and counselling to these virgins under its virginity project being funded by Safe the Children International and the Ghana AIDS Commission.

Mr Benin said YARO has put in place peer, community and school monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the virgins continue to live by their promise.

He added that the implementation of the Virginity Project has successfully re-wakened the desire of young people to delay sex.