By Albert Futukpor, GNA
Tamale, Nov 08, GNA – Participants at a just-ended 26th Denmark Seminar, have recommended the use of school curriculum to inculcate communal spirit and volunteerism in the young generation to propel development of the country.
They emphasised the need for steps to be taken by the relevant bodies in developing and incorporating into school curricular issues of communal spirit and volunteerism to rekindle such values in the youth.
This formed part of recommendations made by the participants and contained in a resolution issued after the seminar, and signed by Chief Abdulai Mohammed, Tolon Gburimani Gbanglana, who chaired the seminar, and Dr Osman Al-Hassan, Chairman of the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale.
The seminar, held at Dalun in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, was organised by the GDCA, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).
It was on the theme: “Growing Up in Northern Ghana: The Role of Communal Spirit in Development”.
The statement indicated that the participants included; traditional authorities, NGOs, representatives from public institutions, youth groups, community and opinion leaders amongst others.
It stated that issues discussed included “Volunteerism in the Context of the European Union Volunteer Aid (EVA) initiative”, “Volunteerism and Communal Spirit: the Danish Perspective”, and “The Role of Traditional Leaders in Development Education”.
Participants at the seminar observed amongst other things that, while volunteerism was beneficial to society, “Our political dispensation, which is deeply characterised by extreme partisanship, dampens the communal spirit as the credit for communal achievements are usually seized by a few political elites”.
The statement, therefore, recommended that “Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Research Institutions should research, document and share forms of traditional and cultural communal spirit of volunteerism to rekindle in Ghanaians the communal spirit of volunteerism”.
The statement indicated “The social structure of Northern Ghana has chiefs and Tendamba as traditional rulers or leaders, who are revered as social heroes, placed in higher positions as the bastions of customs, power and symbols of authority” and added “They must revive the eroding communal spirit and improve on the Knowledge deficits”.
The participants emphasized that “Regressive political colourations of the traditional leadership must give way to sustainable community development” adding, “Traditional Leaders need to eschew cultural ethnocentrism and cultivate worthy virtues of cultural diversity where development means developing the people”.
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