On The Move (OTM)   is a two year project co-funded by the ERASMUS+ Program of the European Union, to assist organizations working with young people to better handle challenges faced when dealing with migration, visa and youth mobility. The purpose of the  “On the Move” project is to raise organizations awareness of the benefit of youth mobility and to support youth organizations in better dealing with visa obstacles in international youth work.

Migration is the movement of people from one place to the other. Several reasons such as better job opportunities, security, and quality education were the major causes of migration in Africa. Several factors including pull and push factors were also deliberated upon .  Pull factors are the factors that attract a person to migrate to a different environment. For instance, someone in Zimbabwe would like to come to Ghana because of peace and security. Peace and security in this scenario becomes the pull factor that is making him or her migrate to Ghana. Push factors on the other hand are factors that are sending you away from one place to the other. A typical example of a pull factor is conflicts or war. Many migrants were forced to leave their country to other countries to save their lives and that of their families. Mobility is not only movement of people but also goods, services and ideas.

Youth Advocates Ghana the host organization arranged a meeting between participants and the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal Authority.  The meeting was to share the concept of the OTM project to authorities and listen to their views and policies on Migration. The team was welcomed by the municipal chief executive officer, the municipal coordinating director and the planning officer. The planning officer, Rev. Isaac Asante Wiafe mentioned his views on migration, globalization, radicalization and access to visas. He stated that, migration to him is not illegal but it becomes a serious problem when migrants do not obey laws and regulations in the new environments they find themselves.

Rev. Isaac Asante Wiafe ended by saying the team’s visit is a wake up call for the assembly to work harder; he believes by the end of the OTM project in 2018, there will be much better improvement. He made it clear to the team the doors of the municipal assembly are opened anytime to work together with the hosting organization (YAG) in terms of peace building.

As part of our commitment as advocates, community development, children empowerment and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals framework is our hallmark. To achieve this dream, we made a donation to The Street Children Empowerment Foundation (SCEF). The foundation has a library project which serves majority of students in the community (James town) from basic school to senior high school. The library is full of text books, dictionaries etc. which makes education interesting in the community. Students go there to do their assignment and also read ahead of their course outline.