Berbice youth groups aim to ‘Impact, Empower and Invest’

DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Two youth groups – ‘Dare to Care’ and ‘Girl Talk’ officially launched on Saturday, March 17, at the Esplanade Park in New Amsterdam Berbice aims to impact, empower and invest into youths in the ancient county, especially young girls.

The groups were established as part of a collaborative initiative between RD Productions through the Miss Berbice –‘I’m a Big Deal’ Pageant and the East Wise Innovations.

The groups goals will be achieved through visits to the places of worship, schools and communities, as well as the formation of small focus groups to discuss and address issues and challenges unique to the respective catchment areas, RD Productions, representative, Tracy Khan-Drakes explained in a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI).

She said, “we will be going to these places to let girls know the time is now for them to take up their leadership role. We shall be mentoring them, teaching them the right path in becoming leaders who can be contributors to their community and that will ultimately impact Guyana in a positive way.”

Khan-Drakes posited that service to humanity is a dying quality and believes that by starting with the future leaders of Guyana, the groups can effect change and lead the cycle for the other generations to come.

“We are basically going to be working to teach them selflessness and the importance of service to community; hence the targeting of schools.  We find that young people aren’t involved much into charitable work, so we are going to be teaching them where they can find various associations trying to make a change, so they can have that experience and build that community spirit.”

Andy Henry, of Ease Wise Innovations and Founder of “Dare to Care”, related that under the theme ‘Impact, Empower and Invest’ the groups will be providing support, care, counselling and opportunity for personal development through provisions and programmes that would enhance life skills, image, and motivation.

“We want to use these three objectives to make a difference and with the necessary resources, we would like to invest in youths because they are the future… We want to make things easier for them, so they can be better equipped to handle the future”, Henry explained.

Additionally, the support group is also aimed at developing better integrated and coordinated services to ensure the investment in the youths counts, while simultaneously creating tangible current and future benefits. The body will also develop local solutions with the aim of providing an opportunity for social interaction and the promotion of cross-culture understanding.

The groups plan to focus on a joint recruitment drive with various stakeholders in the Ancient County, to get youths registered and wherever an opening exists that matches their skill set and level of education recommend them to the stakeholder for employment.

The launch was well supported and saw several prominent members of Berbice pledging support to the groups and commending them for their work, thus far, in the region. Among the participants were several of the contestants and their families from the Inaugural ‘I’m a Big Deal’ beauty pageant as well as the 44 ‘Women of Worth’ recipients on International Women’s Day. Also present was Miss World Guyana, Vena Mookram and her team who also lauded the work of the organisers and pledged their support.

 

 

By: Nafeeza Yahya