‘Think Green’ launches house-to-house data collection in Amelia’s Ward

― information to be used for job creation

― youth empowerment top on the agenda

― local governance at work

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The ‘Think Green’ Steering Committee, a subsidiary of the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LMTC), has launched its data collection project in Amelia’s Ward, Linden.

The mission of the project, according to Chairman, Lawrence Simon, is to establish an information bank, especially of the youth so that they can be contacted in the eventuality of job openings, scholarship openings and training opportunities.

Chairman of Think Green Committee, Lawrence Simon receiving one of the laptops from Libra Management Group which is being used in the data collection process.

Executive member of the Think Green committee with responsibility for youth development, Yanick Graham.

“The information collected will help us to better plan the way forward as it relates to all residents within our constituency, eg, let us say some job openings are available we can check our data, contact those persons and make representation for same, like a scholarship or training, availability of loans or grants etc,” Simon related.

A non-governmental organisation, Libra Management Group of Atlanta, USA donated two laptops to the committee to better assist them with this project.

Youth empowerment is first on the agenda and this project will be creating an avenue in which the youth who are in dire need of empowerment whether it be through employment, the pursuit of tertiary education, financial assistance for entrepreneurial ventures can receive assistance. The first step, however, is knowing who these young people are and what are their needs. The aim is not only to sit and wait on an opportunity to knock but to seek it out from various entities through public/private partnerships.

Areas where assistance and training are needed, the period of unemployment, home or domestic landowner, farmland or commercial landowner are some of the information that will be retrieved from the survey.

The Think Green Steering Committee has representatives from the various neighbourhoods such as Bamia, South Amelia’s Ward, Central Amelia’s Ward, Block 42, among others. Young Councillor, Yanick Graham has been tasked with youth development while Michael Hercules has been tasked with community development.

Graham, who is the youngest municipal councillor, said he is currently pushing for a youth group to be established with membership from all over Amelia’s Ward. The information from the database will also be used as the committee, will be forging ties with the police and welfare department to sift out the young people who are repeat offenders to work closely in helping them to get their lives together.

“We know unemployment is a soaring issue and so our main goal is to tap into programmes that will provide funding for training, internships, scholarship, youth programmes, ITC, STEM Robotics, so our youths can become meaningfully involved,” he said. The youth will also be involved in community development in keeping with the Think Green initiative.

While financial assistance directly from the council might be limited, due to its financial constraints, Lawrence said the group will be tapping into opportunities of funding through grants from various ministries available in the 2019 budget. In addition to applying for grants, the committee will be embarking on fundraising activities that will enable the group to be more economically viable.

Story and images: Vanessa Braithwaite.