TCV helping to combat scourge of suicide

May 29, 2016 News

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A number of individuals and organizations have recognized that suicide is not only a challenge but there is need for strategic measures to help combat its scourge. Among the organizations that have been focused in this regard is The Caribbean Voice (TCV).

Although based in the United States, the organization has for the past few years been helping to address the challenge of suicide here.
According to information from the organization, it has been almost two years since it launched its suicide prevention mission in Guyana.
“When we started this campaign we had very little idea about the socio-political dynamics that obtained in Guyana. We were not quite familiar with the suicide landscape either,” officials of the organization revealed recently. However, the Caribbean Voice’s efforts have been aided by tremendous amount of research, including the commissioning of three short surveys to better understand how Guyanese think with regards to suicide, abuse and mental health in general.
Although the Non Governmental Organisation started out with a five-year plan, in recognition of the realization that suicide prevention is not an overnight endeavour, “we have continually adapted plans to the realities, as we became aware of them, so that we have always been in sync with the needs relating to suicide prevention.”
Officials of Caribbean Voice have also stated that “while our initial focus was suicide prevention, we soon had to expand that focus, firstly, to include related issues- all forms of abuse – and subsequently, mental health as a whole.”
Caribbean Voice has noted, too, that “as we approach the second anniversary of our activism, we are in a position to craft a concise and realistic campaign, going forward.”
Among its focus is training. It was pointed out that the first pillar of the Caribbean Voice’s campaign is training, for first responders as well as for trainers themselves.
However, officials have admitted that “we are still trying to figure out exactly how this would be delivered but currently we are exploring the possibility of launching the ‘Train The Trainers’ component in collaboration with the New Jersey Arya Samaj Humanitarian Mission(NJASM) and hopefully, a number of other stakeholders and partners.”
If all goes according to plan, the launch should take place at NJASM’s centre at Port Mourant, Corentyne some time in July or August.
From there it is expected that the initiative will be taken to other parts of Berbice and then, hopefully, to Demerara and Essequibo. Towards this end, the Ministry of Public Health has indicated a possibility of providing team Guyana with relevant training, Caribbean Voice has revealed.
Those who will attend the trainers’ training, are expected to be drawn from the education and health care sectors, the religious community and any other sector that can be persuaded or may want to be involved.
With trainers in place, “we expect that first responders training will then be easy to organize in various communities and hopefully we would be able to set up a mechanism to help plan and execute as well as track this process.”
And since the highest suicide rate is exhibited by the 15 to 25 age group, another pillar of the Caribbean Voice’s campaign would be a focus on the young people, especially within the schools. “We are again exploring collaboration with NJASM, the Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education (as well as other stakeholders) to continue the self-esteem workshops that were started by NJASM in high schools in Berbice.”
The NGO will be aiming to take this workshop to Demerara and Essequibo. As the campaign gathers momentum, the Caribbean Voice will be looking to the possibility of exploring taking it to youth groups, especially those comprising young people who either have dropped out of high school or have graduated from high school and are 18 to 25 years of age or thereabouts. The NGO has however launched the programme in Demerara, at the Covent Garden High School, on May 28 in collaboration with GIUFT Foundation, one of its partners.
Additionally, Caribbean Voice has expressed hope to finalize arrangements with the Ministry of Education to launch the National Secondary Schools Essay Contest in August and have it implemented in schools in September with a timeline that would see prizegiving done in the summer of 2017 when the Diaspora group once again visits Guyana.
And depending on how this contest is received and responded to “we might explore the possibility of making it an annual affair. The essay contest is co-sponsored by Save Abee Foundation, Imagine Nation Foundation and the Anna Catherina Islamic Complex. Hopefully, others can be persuaded to come on board.”
During October 2014 the NGO launched a community outreach at Black Bush Polder, which was then dubbed ‘The suicide capital of Guyana’. However, given its lack of experience, this project turned out to be costly without yielding the anticipated results.
The organization in April took a decision to restart its outreach at La Parfaite Harmonie. Working in collaboration with two of its partners – Orchid Foundation, which has a presence in that community, and supported by GIVE Foundation – it was able to bring off a well received, interactive outreach that focused on self esteem, suicide prevention, abuse and which also launched the two petitions via written signatures.
“The crux of this campaign is community-based organizations (CBOs) that do the organizing and mobilizing of attendees so that TCV is able to engage them. And this is going to be the approach to this endeavour. Already a number of other CBOs have contacted TCV and so we expect this activity to be rolled out on a regular basis,” The Caribbean Voice has noted.

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