Loading boys trained to maintain peace during Election 2012

Forty-eight loading boys and lorry station attendants were on Friday trained on the promotion and maintenance of peace, before, during and after the 2012 election in Bolgatanga and Navrongo in the Upper East Region.

Organisers of the programme, Youth Alive Ghana, a non- governmental organisation (NGO) working with deprived children and helping the vulnerable to access skills and formal training in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, initiated the programme to prepare the minds of the participants for peaceful conduct in the December polls.

Mr Conrad Balig, Regional Co-ordinator of the NGO indicated that the training targeted the young men working at the lorry stations who most often were used by politicians and political parties to cause mayhem during elections.

The training was funded by STAR Ghana, a multi-donor organisation that pool funding to increase influence of civil society and parliament in governance.

Mr John Bosco Azu, Deputy Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, (EC) took participants through the processes of registration and how to handle minors who wants to exercise their franchise.

Mr Alfred Yelyang, an official of the West African Network for Peace, who facilitated the training, took the participants through conflict management and early warning systems and how to identify and respond to conflict situations.**