NMC CHAIR ADVISES YOUTH ON DRUG ABUSE (PAGE 21, MAY 1, 2010)

From Joe Okyere, Ankaful.

The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Kabral Blay Amihere, has entreated the youth to resist the temptation of drug abuse and excessive use of alcohol.
He said most of the inmates of the country’s psychiatric hospitals were youthful and he attributed that to drug abuse and alcoholism.
Mr Amihere gave the advice in an interview with The Mirror after joining the staff, students and some past students of St Augustine’s College to donate items to the inmates of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital.
They also planted seedlings of trees along the road from the St Augustine’s College Park to the Cape Coast Metropolitan Hospital to commemorate the occasion.
The donation formed part of activities marking the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the college by the Catholic Church.
Mr Amihere, who is a former High Commissioner to Sierra Leone and member of the St Augustine’s Past Students Union (APSU), advised the youth to study hard to justify the investment made in their education by their parents and the government to unearth their potential to enable them to become useful citizens and contribute to nation-building.
He commended the staff and students of the college for their efforts to give to the needy and described the gesture as a testimony that the founding fathers of the school built it on the spirit of service to mankind.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr Joseph Connel, said training the youth was its desire for the students to learn moral values to make them become useful citizens to contribute to the development of the country.
He said the donation formed part of the school’s social responsibility, adding that it was also meant to inculcate in the students the spirit of giving back to society and helping the unfortunate ones who found themselves in such undesirable places.
The Head of Administration of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Mr Kingsley Asamoah-Bediako, expressed gratitude to the staff, the students and the past students of the college for the donation, which he described as the biggest to the institution so far.
He also advised the students to learn from the unfortunate experiences of the young inmates of the hospital who were once students but failed to heed advice, for which reason they found themselves in that unfortunate circumstance.