Mr Seth Oteng, the Executive Director of Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), has called on the youth to be good ambassadors for peace, development and dialogue for their communities and the country at large.
Mr Oteng made the call when the Westside Dolphins, the Western Regional Beach Soccer Team, drawn from the project’s six coastal districts, paid an official working visit to YBF in Accra on Monday.
YBF is a non-governmental youth focused organisation that challenges the creativity of the youth and improve their development.
The visit was aimed at formally thanking YBF and the TEN Project Partners for believing in the members and giving them the opportunity to showcase their talents and skills through Beach Soccer.
The Westside Dolphins participated in a national Unity Cup Tournament organised by the Ghana Beach Soccer Association where Frank Mensah, the goalkeeper of the team was adjudged the best goalkeeper and has being called to play with the National team- the Black Stars.
The TEN Project is an integrated youth development initiative aimed at creating platforms for youth engagement and development in six Coastal Districts of the Western Region namely, Shama, Senkondi-Takoradi, Ahanta West, Nzema East, Ellembele and Jomoro.
Following this goal, the TEN Project has introduced a Beach Soccer Initiative as a recreational sports avenue for the promotion of environmental sanitation along the beaches.
The TEN Project, which is a joint venture partnership between Tullow Ghana Limited, Kosmos Energy, Ghana National Petroleum Cooperation, Anadarko Petroleum and Petro SA is also a flagship youth engagement tool deployed by the TEN partners to create awareness on the TEN Project and provide avenue for engaging and developing young people in the project zone of influence.
Mr Oteng urged the group members, to promote the beach soccer campaign since through that education could be promoted.
He also called for the inclusion of female footballers in the campaign to ensure gender equality on the country’s development.
YBF presented the team with prizes for the success chalked out.
Mr Nathan Asamoah, the Interim Coach of the Westside Dolphins, admitted that it was not an easy tournament.
He said the Team had just been formed and it was their first public appearance outside the region.
Mr Asamoah said the Team through united force was able to display resilience to hold the champions.
“Because this being our first time, we lost based on technicalities but the Team is happy about the national exposure and ended the tournament more inspired,” he said.
The players also shared their experiences gained with YBF officials who had supported, nurtured, motivated and encouraged them to this far.
They also pledged to save the Western Regional beaches for the goal of the TEN Project to be worthwhile.
“As we are going as ambassadors, we are going to help save our beaches, keep them clean and tell our success stories to our peers to boost the country’s development,” Augustine Sarsah, the team’s captain said.’
