Berbice NGO launches education programme for children, adults

Sep 15, 2015 News

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“We really need to speak about the value of education; without ed ucation we are a house without a lamp and for us to break the vicious cycle – whatever the cycle may be – education is the key to unlocking that door,” said Pandit Suresh Sugrim of the Humanitarian Mission of New Jersey Arya Samaj.

For Sugrim, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Administrative Head of the NGO, education is a necessity to break poverty.

For a number of years the NGO has been doing work in the field of education but has now launched an even more aggressive campaign. This campaign was launched in Port Mourant, Berbice and its surrounding areas, over the weekend.

“The goal of our organization is to break the cycle of poverty through education and by creating jobs for the less fortunate. When we talk about breaking the cycle, there are many various cycles we can address that come under education, but, generally, when an individual is educated, they tend to walk away from many of the ills of society…because education helps us to decide on the issues of right and wrong,” Sugrim stressed.

The NGO will be offering several programmes such as English and Mathematics for children who have failed at their exams as well as children who are about to write their exams.

Help will also be given to children who are in primary and secondary schools and who need extra lessons.

For the campaign, he continued, the focus will be on both children and adults. He explained that the decision to target parents and High School dropouts had arisen from observations that parents were just not involved enough in their children’s education.

However, Sugrim said, oftentimes it is not the parent’s fault.

“We’ll be focusing on literacy because we realized a lot of parents and adults do not know to read and write. What has been happening is that when a child comes home with homework, there is very little help in that home because Mommy and Daddy can’t read so how are they going to help their children?

“Through the literacy programme, we’re focusing on parents so that they can learn to read and write,” he said. He added, “The goal is not for them to get a Master’s [Degree] or a Bachelor’s [Degree] or whatever the case may be but to empower them through the power of education.”

Other programmes, focused specifically at adults, will be available. These would include letter writing, résumé preparations, public speaking and communication.

Sugrim further indicated that the NGO is looking at the sustainability of the project. Hence, he said, a minimal cost is required to reimburse the teachers.

“We’re not here to get rich or make money…but we can’t go to donors all the time, so we need to look at the sustainability of the project,” he said. He added that there are about eight to 10 volunteers who are all qualified teachers within the community.

Additionally, he said, there will be heavy focus on education programmes that empower women. “You educate a man and you educate an individual; you educate a woman and you educate an entire nation,” he said.

“As an NGO, we’re truly here to break that cycle where not enough women are educated. We want to say to women and men that there are equal opportunities for everyone, provided you are prepared to take the ladder to the higher road.”

Fresh approach

Though the Humanitarian Mission of New Jersey Arya Samaj has been around for a decade, Sugrim said that a fresh approach was taken about two years ago.

He explained that before, the NGO had embarked upon a campaign of distributing handouts. However, it was later recognized that this was a mistake, that a more hands on approach was needed, Sugrim said.

“We’ve come to realize that handouts are not the solution to Guyana’s problems; if we really want to make an impact into our communities we need to start to educate human minds. We need to take back our communities,” he emphasized.

However, he said, there are challenges facing the project such as non-committal by parents to support and invest in their children’s education.

“Unless we are ready to change, we’re all going to remain where we’re currently at.”

He opined that while the government and NGOs have tried to curb the issues destroying the foundations of families, it was parents who needed to take control of their children’s lives. He also urged parents to instil the values of education to their children, despite their own educational background.

“The teachers in the schools can try and the religious leaders can try but when the child comes back home, he or she is back into that same unhealthy situation, so we need to reach out to the parents to do more,” he stressed.

He further urged other NGOs and faith-based organizations to pool their resources to make a difference in the lives of those who need it. “We need to give hope to the hopeless and become the voice of the voiceless.”

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