Empowering youths

─ Victoria youths to benefit from civic and voter education workshop

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, November 13, 2019

To be able to vote is a fundamental right of every citizen; it allows them to choose leaders who they feel best to represent their ideas and interests. Casting a ballot allows all eligible persons to have a say in what occurs in the country.

To this end, raising awareness of the importance of this right is crucial. Addressing this head-on is the Victoria Youth Development Organisation (VYDO), which will be facilitating a Civic and Voter Education workshop in the first quarter of 2020.

According to President of the VYDO, Anthony Samuels this initiative underscores the importance of voting particularly to young people. “We want to make youths aware [of their rights] and to educate them about this act [voting] and why they should vote. While we are not telling them who to vote for, we hope to highlight the importance of voting,” he explained to the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Samuels is encouraging young people from Victoria and the surrounding communities to enrol in the workshop when it opens early next year. He pointed out that VYDO also provides training programmes to develop soft skills in leadership through the use of practice and theory and job-market readiness

“VYDO executes these programmes through collaboration with facilitators from various organisations to ensure that the training provided is relevant and beneficiaries of the respective programmes could receive the requisite skills and knowledge needed to enable them to become better leaders and change agents,” Samuels explained.

The VYDO President noted that the leaders of the organisation themselves completed a leadership programme in 2017 facilitated by the Youth Empowerment Unit attached to the Department of Youth. Since then they have embarked on several initiatives to help develop Victoria through education, agriculture and youth development projects.

Samuels said that the group is currently working on establishing a cricket and football club. He said they are willing to partner with any entity that will help foster development in the community.

“We would like to encourage our youths to participate in activities such like this, as helps create well-rounded individuals… an appreciation for cricket has been growing in the community, and so we need to provide the necessary tools to help further that growth,” Samuels added.

VYDO spearheads community projects such as village clean-up exercises, education tours, teaching programmes, among others.