Sunrise Centre hosts third workshop on mental health

Jun 21, 2017 News

… community involvement is key to curbing suicide rate

The Zorg en Vlygt Sunrise Centre under the Guyana Foundation yesterday hosted its third mental health workshop since its opening last October. The workshop was geared at improving the community’s input towards the development of the centre.
Miriam Roberts-Hinds, the Manager of the centre, believes that there is a need for the community’s input. “We have the people of Region Two at heart, and even though we can’t help everyone at least we must put forth the effort to try.”
Attendees included representatives from the Ministries of Social Protection, Social Cohesion, and Ministry of Education, and representatives of the Christian community and other community members.
The Guyana foundation focuses on outreaches wherever the need may be great. Director Susan Isaacs said, “We’ve provided solar kits to residents on the East Coast Demerara, we’ve even supported residents in the Pomeroon by making ovens for them to setup their businesses.”
In 2015 the foundation realized that suicide became a challenge to Guyana to the point where it was almost a norm. Realistically however, the loss of human lives to suicide is nothing less than a tragedy, and threatens the national development of Guyana.
The high number of deaths to suicide in Guyana is the single largest national crisis facing the country at this moment. Over the past five years several hundred Guyanese have ended their life by suicide, resulting in the country now being ranked by the world health organization as having the highest suicide rate in the world.
The Sunrise Center was setup with mental health being a key mandate to the foundation.
Head of the Guyana foundation Mrs. Supriya Singh-Bodden said, “The Sunrise Centre is simply a place of hope and innovation for vulnerable individuals.”
The centre was officially launched last October in order to proactively reach out and provide multiple forms of support, services, training programmes and interventions to individuals vulnerable to suicide.
It currently operates and is managed primarily by members of the community with close oversight from Guyana Foundation head office.
The centre eventually realized the need for its members to improve their literacy skills. The Managing Director, Susan Isaacs, expressed her readiness to commence Maths and English classes for CSEC exams come September.
This intern would facilitate school dropouts that have the will to pick up the challenge in completing their secondary education.

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