He is enthusiastic and passionate about youth work. Lamin K Saidy holds diplomas in youth development and community development studies from the University of Lagoon, Ghana, and GTTI, respectively. He had served as coordinator of the Network of Adolescent and Youth on Population and Development and also acting speaker of the National Youth Parliament. Currently, he works at Child Protection Alliance.
“I picked up employment with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and was posted to North Bank Region as regional youth coordinator until 2013, when I was moved to West Coast Region on a similar assignment. During this period, I was responsible for delivering government policies on youth and sports and assist youth and sports clubs in programme planning and implementation.
“I attended several trainings organised by CPA while at the NYC. This was around 2008. I then fell in love with the job they do, but Allah brought my dream to light in 2013 when I was appointed to help promote and achieve the vision and mission laid down. I love serving humanity most especially children because they are gifts from God.
“Children are children and start life as a total dependent. So, they rely more on us in terms of their needs. Our work involves policy advocacy. It becomes painful if you don’t see that change you desire.
“I have and continue to play my part in national development. As a country, we are doing a lot, but again I believe a lot more should be done for youth and children. We need to look at emerging child protection issues and reflect them in our laws and policies. Issues like minimum age for marriage to be at 18, and laws to illegalise FGM/C, child labour including street begging which should be considered as critical child protection issues. Mechanisms to curtail rape and defilement and incest should be put in place and perpetrators should always face the full force of the law.
“Families should take a proactive role in prevention of child abuse and stop covering family members who abuse children. We need to help the security services by reporting cases so that the offenders can be brought to book.”
Words by Sise Sawaneh
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