DAILY GRAPHIC, Friday, August 17, 2012, Pg.28. Accra hosts Young Christian Workers summit

The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Accra, Most Rev Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle addressing the youth at the opening ceremony of the 13th International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) council summit last Saturday in Accra.

Story: Mary Ankrah

 A two-weeks summit of  the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) council which has  the theme: “Young Workers as Actors of Change”, has opened in Accra.

The meeting will review and discuss how to strengthen the IYCW’s  social protection campaign which focuses on just work, decent living, gender equity and quality education for all young workers. 

It has attracted YCW members from across the world, including the US, Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, India, Egypt, Gambia, Benin and Ghana.

Addresssing the participants at the opening ceremony, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Accra Diocese,Most Rev Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, stated that the youth were the treasures of their country because they constitute a large proportion of the world’s population.

He observed that the youth were important in the society, and therefore they must be encouraged to make an impact in society.

Most Rev Palmer-Buckle also exhorted  the youth to channel their energies into productive activities such as sports, information technology, active labour force, education, among others.

In addition , he said, they could make the world a better place, through their vitality to engage in activities; their creativeness to invent new things; their idealism to dream of how to better the world, and their passion to be perfect.

Touching on the rationale for the summit, the International President of IYCW, Ms Geethani Peries, indicated that the recent report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) showed that youth unemployment had increased by four million globally between 2007 and 2011.

The huge increase, she said, was pervasive in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and in developing countries where conditions of young workers were even more harsh.

According to her, the trickle effect of the global financial crisis also impacted on young workers more than any other group in society because they were “often at the bottom of the rung “ and so they needed protection.

“We must take up the cause of young workers, we must ask, why not? We must continue the struggle to improve our working conditions, fight for the dignity of each young worker and also be actors of change”, she opined.

She was optimistic that the summit would enable the members to develop the needed solidarity and support the campaign to fight for improved working conditions of young people in the world.

For his part, the President of YCW in Ghana, Mr Apiining Lucas, observed that the objective of the movement to organise young workers across the globe to fight for change in their living conditions would enable the government to have an insight into some of the problems the youth face in terms of employment and seek redress to make them contribute meaningfully to the development the country.

The International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) members in a group photograph with the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Accra, Most Rev Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle at the 13th International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) council summit last Saturday in Accra.