wfn.org | United Methodist youth network revives in West Africa

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 11, 2002      News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-31-71B{294}

By United Methodist News Service

An important network of United Methodist youth leaders is being revitalized
in West Africa.

Fifteen youth met June 27-July 2 in Accra, Ghana, representing the official
youth organization of the denomination's West Africa Central Conference. 

Youth work had largely halted in the area after 1999 because of civil wars
in Sierra Leone and Liberia, said the Rev. John Yambasu, a regional
missionary assigned by the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries. He also cited changes in the office of youth director in
Liberia, which was providing leadership for the organization, known as the
West Africa Central Conference Youth Executive Committee.

In 1992, Yambasu, then youth director of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference,
had started the ministry with the Rev. Julius Sarwolo Nelson of Liberia. It
became an official entity of the central conference, and from 1995 to 1999
it implemented programs and activities for, by and with young people.

As a regional missionary, Yambasu is charged with the development of
leadership programs and youth networking in Africa. A grant of $9,500 from
the board's International Ministries Committee is helping revitalize the
youth executive committee, he said. Smart Senesie of Freetown, Sierra Leone,
is chairperson of the youth organization.

Reports presented at the Ghana meeting provided an overview of United
Methodist youth ministries in West Africa. Programs in such areas as
computer literacy, female empowerment, health and disaster response are
continuing in Liberia. Sierra Leone's youth ministry programs include
leadership training, trauma healing, HIV/AIDS awareness and youth camps and
retreats.

In Senegal, established as a United Methodist mission field in 1997, a youth
association was launched in 1999. Its activities include retreats, Bible
study and leadership training, with future plans including computer training
and the establishment of a youth center. In Nigeria, where youth represent
55 percent of the population, targeted work areas include HIV/AIDS
education, improved communications and interfaith dialogue between Muslims
and Christians.

The West Africa Central Conference also has a Young Women's Network,
especially active in Liberia and Sierra Leone, aimed at empowering young
women to stand against social injustice, become self-reliant, and work as
partners with men in the church and community.

While West Africa has the only functioning youth network, plans are being
made to organize such networks for Southern, East, Central and North Africa
as well, according to Yambasu. A project proposal will be submitted to the
denomination's Shared Mission Focus on Young People task force for funding.

Another goal is to form or strengthen existing ties with national ecumenical
youth movements in the various countries.

One of Yambasu's concerns is that the denomination often loses youth as
members once they reach college age. "While the United Methodist Church is
known to offer one of the most comprehensive Christian education programs to
its children and youth during the formative stages of their development,
there is absolutely no follow-up pastoral care on these young people when
they leave high school and enter institutions of higher learning," he
explained in his report on the Ghana meeting.

He proposes making campus ministry a priority for the African church, with
the denomination's Africa University in Zimbabwe serving as a springboard
for an organized campus ministry program within the annual conferences. 

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United Methodist News Service
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