The programme, which is earmarked for graduates who have completed their national service but are yet to gain employment, is purely based on voluntary work with stipends to cushion the volunteers.

At the induction and orientation programme held at the South Ghana Union Conference Hall in Accra, Dr William Brown, the Country Director of ADRA, said the induction programme was to take the volunteers through the art of Adventist volunteerism and public communication.

“Today’s programme is to build their capacity and prepare them for the tasks ahead…volunteer work demand a lot of commitment and public communication.

“One has to be mentally strong and self-disciplined in all aspects …We are starting this programme on a pilot basis…so now we have the northern sector and southern sector,” he said.

Dr Brown said there were plans to extend it to non-Adventist institutions in the near future but that would be based on the success of the pilot programme.

Mrs Stella Agyenim-Boateng, the Chairperson of the AVSP, in an interview with Ghana News Agency, said the programme was an initiative of ADRA Ghana and the Seventh Day Adventist Unions to support the youth to be employed.  “The church has realised that there are a lot of unemployed graduates who have no work doing especially after national service.

“It has always been the desire of employers to hire people with some kind of experience, so this volunteer work will serve that purpose,” she said.  Mrs Agyenim-Boateng said the platform would serve as an avenue for work experience and equip the volunteers to compete effectively at any institution.

The 74 volunteers, who went through series of interviews and tests for the pilot programme, were drawn from both the northern and southern sectors; that is Kumasi and Accra.