Youth Initiatives - Featured - VACI Ghana

Finally, after a long 6 months away from Eco-Generation, busy with my uni applications etc. finally I have settled in at IIT Kharagpur and would be majoring in Computer Science. In this series of articles, I would be writing about youth initiatives around the world - which started at a very small scale in their localities and now are doing some absolutely great work for the environment and youth. I hope these articles act as an inspiration for all the children and youth across the world you use the Eco-Generation to do something starting from their own homes and localities.

Voluntary Aid and Cultural Integration (VACI – Ghana, www.vacighana.org), a partner organization to Green the Gene, is based in the Volta Region in the southern part of Ghana, and was founded in the year 2000, by youth from that region. The VACI team, along with local and international volunteers works with local participants for the development of their communities. With active projects and operations in five communities in two districts (Akatsi and Ketu south and Ketu north Districts) of the Volta region, VACI encourages voluntary work and cultural understanding between people of different countries, and different communities and cultures within Ghana itself. Cultural integration and mutual exchange of ideas of people with diverse backgrounds and understanding is a necessary ingredient for growth and development. One of the major goals of VACI is to promote the engagement of Ghanaian youth in the development of their own country. For example, VACI Counselling Project is a unit that engages volunteers in providing career and educational counselling for youth in the Volta Region. Through projects staffed by motivated volunteers, VACI also hopes to educate Ghanaian society on high-impact issues such as drug abuse, health and sexual education, etc.

The organization hopes to work towards building schools to accommodate children in deprived areas of Southern Volta. It is a part of the vision of the VACI Team, that such schools become modern schools for the advancement of community based development, and a complement to the government of Ghana's effort at making education a fundamental subject of grassroots development. VACI also works to sponsor the education of underprivileged children in the Volta region while helping them to acquire employable skills. As a component part of their project on rural education, computer study centres are being established soon by the organization in one of these communities to serve the information technology needs of the children living in these communities. It helps develop future ICT actors to work for the environment as volunteers.