Pen youth clubs inaugurated in Upper East

The Ghanaian Centre of Pen International has inaugurated Pen youth clubs in selected senior high schools in the Upper East Region.

Pen International is a worldwide association of writers, which brings together poets, journalists, editors novelists, essayists, critics, historians, translators and screen writers with a common interest in the art of writing.

It is composed of more than 145 centres in 106 countries including Ghana and membership is opened to all published writers.

Inaugurating the clubs at the Zuarungu Senior High School, the Executive Director of the Ghanaian Centre of Pen International, Mr Mackay Anim-Appiah, expressed the hope that the club would serve as a platform to address the falling standards of the English language.

He said the Ghanaian Centre of Pen International was established in 1994 and the first youth club was formed and inaugurated in the Wa Senior High School followed by the Bolgatanga, Navrongo and Zuarungu Senior High.

Pen centres around the world continue to create programmes that give young people a platform through which to develop, he said adding that the centres run school clubs, organise human rights summer schools, build school libraries, translate children literature into minority languages, holds creative writing workshops and create opportunities for young people to freely express themselves.

He said Pen acts us a powerful voice in opposing political censorship and speaking for writers and journalists who are often jailed for expressing of their views.

Mrs Beatrice Nboh Abire, the Headmistress of the Zuarungu Senior High School, lauded the efforts of the Ghanaian Centre and urged the students to take the activities of the club seriously.