Hon.
Chairman, my Lord Bishop, dignified invited guest, dignified invited speakers, staff
present, executives and prefects of various schools, students, ladies and
gentlemen, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson once said, we are
diamonds, and we shouldn’t go out there looking for diamonds again, but we
should let our formation as students be the time for shaping, cutting, and
polishing the diamond in us, thus our talents, gifts and potentials.
Hon.
Chairman, The Shepherds Rod Foundation, is a nonprofit charitable organisation
meant to exercise charity works, leadership programmes and serving as a
platform for entertaining students and helping students to invest into their future.
The word SHEPHERD, which will be often heard
in this programme should not but draw our attention to the works of Jesu
s, the chief and good shepherd. He who caters for the poor, the sick, the needy, children, widows just to mention a few, He is our spiritual patron. Our founding aim was to organize students and introduce them to the works of charity, by paying visits to children’s homes, rehabilitation centers, and the physically challenged. This is usually done through the voluntary act of giving by the students.
Hon.
Chairman, not only charity but shepherds play a major role in the training of
young ones to prepare them for the future generation, hence what you see today:
the
shepherds’ leadership programme. We spend much time and resources on
young achievers and initiatives. We have however started with the J H S
leadership programme in March. President Obama once said ‘we need young
Africans who are standing up and making things happen not only in their own societies
but around the world, for the future of Africa belongs to its youths.’
Even though
we claim there are no children in the world, shepherds still hold to the fact
that the seminar will serve as a platform to teach the child the way he should
go and when he grows he will not depart from it. We are all future leaders,
future teachers, religious men and women, politicians, heads of institutions,
medical men and women, business men and women, and if this diamond in us is not
shaped and prepared for the mantle in the future, what type of future do we
have?
We should however as future leaders
acknowledge that, true success is won by the person who does today what his
friend is thinking to do tomorrow. However, the greatest ambition of every
leader is to bring the future to the present. That is if you really know who
you are and what you really want to become, and you start working towards it
now, you are in disguise bringing your future to the present. For instance, if
one knows that he is an average student, and that he wants to be a business
man, he has to go the extra mile by studying H-A-R-D.
Hon. Chairman,
the Shepherds that you see today was founded almost two years ago with 70
members and 5 executives. But frankly
speaking, the whole student body of St James helps us in our charity visits.
They are all Shepherds now. It is however our aim to establish this charity
movement and leadership meetings in various schools. The future of shepherds is
THE SHEPHERDS VILLAGE. And this
village project will be executed very soon. However, what we are currently
working on as the third section of SRF is the Shepherds Messenger. This
messenger will be printed ones every term or three months to participating
schools. It will involve the wisdom of the chief Shepherd, health talks, mind
tools, news from various schools, entertainment, the charity works and many
more from the outside world.
In
conclusion Hon. Chairman, I will officially ask My Lord Bishop to consider the
foundation and be the Chief Shepherd of our Leadership Seminars. I ones again
welcome you all to this noble function. My dear students present, contribute
and participate fully so that you can become the diamonds that you are by
AWAKENING THE LEADER IN YOU. It is said, you may be disappointed if you try, but
you are doomed, if you don’t try at all.
THANK YOU
AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL
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