More than 300 members of the Kyekyewere community seating at campaign on Wednesday night
By Christopher Tetteh
Kyekyewere, Tain, B/R
Monday, September 16, 2019
Government should resources informal working sector.
Residents of Kyekyewere, a farming community near Serkwa in the Tain District of the Bono Region has called on government to resource the informal working sectors at the Districts level to serve as other sources of employment for the youth.
They said the informal sector has high potentials to employ thousands of unemployed young people to work with and that could drastically reduce the unemployment burden on the government.
This was said in an interview conducted with some residents of the Kyekyewere community at the sideline of a “Safe Migration” campaign held in the area on Wednesday.
The safe migration campaign, with the message “Say No To Illegal Migration” is a project embarked on by the Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA) in conjunction with the Migration Information Center (MIC) of the Ghana Immigration Service together with the Initiative Black & White Ghana and Germany.
At Jinijini Secondary schools, about 800 students were gathered with the teachers and sensitised on the issues of Illegal Migration.
It aimed at touching and transforming the heart and minds of the potential migrants to reverse any decission of journeying through the desert and the high seas to Libya and Europe in searching for better living conditions.
The illegal migration free campaign, would also see to inculcating into parents, teachers, fresh graduates, young adults and every individual the dangers involved when taking irregular journey to the European countries so that they can also propagate the message to other people across the country.
The campaign is being done at Secondary Schools, organised community forums, social gatherings, churches and Mosques.
Twene Amanfo Secondary Technical (TASTECH) and Sunyani Secondary schools in the Sunyani Municipality and Jinijini Secondary Schools in the Berekum West District were some of the beneficiary institutions.
The campaign would also be reaching Odumasemang Secondary Schools, Berekum Secondary schools, Domaa Secondary schools, Nsawkaw State College, SAHESS and other necessary institutions in the Bono Region.
Superintendent Haruna Alhasan, the officer in charge of the Migration Information Center for the three Regions of the Brong-Ahafo said records from his outfit revealed that the Brong-Ahafo region has higher figures according to Illegal Migration statistics nationwide.
He said many were those illegal migrants who die on the desert and the high seas, hence, the need for the campaign to save lives.
Adamsu, a farming area near Drobo in the Jaman South and Nkrankrom near Abesim in Sunyani were some beneficiary communities in their respective Municipalities and also Kyekyewere, an illegal migration prone community in the Tain District of the Bono region.
Speaking to Mr. John Mensah, a cocoa and Cashew farmer and a potential illegal migrants at Kyekyewere said his willingness to take that risky voyage was because farm produced were not bought at a convincing prices for the farmers to be motivated.
He cited “a bag of Cashew was bought at 2 Ghana Cedis during the last Cashew season”.
The first Campaign night at Nkrankrom, in the Sunyani Municipality.
“In this area, you can find one Libya illegal migrant in each house”, Mr Mensah hintered, and the root causes according to him was because there were no formal or informal job opportunities in the area for the youth.
Our farm produced were also bought at a disgraceful prices, therefore forcing majority of youth in the area making that move as an option, he added, and urged the government to arrest the situation.
The campaign has so far reached more than 5,000 people, comprising students, teachers, heads of families and community members in the three Regions of the Brong-Ahafo.
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