The volunteers and officials
France Volontaires, a French platform for international exchange and solidarity volunteering is poised to create opportunities for young people in the Western Region to embark on volunteerism in France.
This came to light during a day’s stakeholder’s consultative meeting on youth volunteerism organised by France Voluntaires.
The programme which was in collaboration with the National Youth Authority (NYA), Western Region, was attended by various youth volunteering, and non-governmental and Civil Society organisations.
Speaking in an interview, Volunteering Development Officer of France Voluntaires, Fofogan Doku, indicated that the event is aimed at promoting and developing international exchange and solidarity volunteering.
He said, “We are a nationwide organisation and so it is important that we go to other parts of the country to meet with actors in the volunteering space to know how we can assist them do their work”.
He noted that his organisation is taking the initiative in partnership with the National Youth Authority adding that France Voluntaires wants to develop more activities in the Western Region to have an organisation that can host French volunteers.
“We want to create the opportunity for the young ones here to also go for volunteer works in France”, he stressed.
He pointed out that there are various French Volunteering schemes that comes with some specific requirements.
“For instance with the Civic Service Volunteering, it’s for people within the ages of 18 to 25 years and no special skills is required,” he said. “They are deployed for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12 months. So the young ones should have the passion to travel for volunteer work”.
Western Regional Director of the NYA, Edwin Amponsah, said the event was to promote volunteerism at national and interÂnational levels.
He was happy that many of the groups are now aware of the various opportunities in-store for them.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi