Rupununi youths participate in first Social Cohesion Exchange Programme

Aug 15, 2017 News

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Youths representing 23 villages in South Central Rupununi are participating in a five-day Inter-Village Social Cohesion Exchange Programme at St. Ignatius Secondary School.

The students will be housed in the dormitories over the next few days as they engage each other on issues relating to social cohesion. The programme is the first of its kind and is being done as a pilot project.

At the opening ceremony held at the school yesterday was Minister of Social Cohesion, George Norton who told the youths that they have all the capabilities to breakdown all the barriers to achieve social cohesion. He explained that one of these barriers is stereotypical behaviour. The Minister said that not so long ago, when Indigenous people were seen in the Capital City of Georgetown, people living in the city had their own idea of how Indigenous people live and behave.

“It is you the youths that have got to change that stereotyping of Indigenous people in this country and the older folks are depending on you to do so…you’ve got to help us change the way the rest of the society look at us Indigenous peoples.”

He added that barriers need to be broken down based on biases, exclusion, marginalisation and inequality. Minister Norton explained that a large part of breaking down barriers has to do with respecting each other’s culture and engaging in and promoting activities which foster co-existence among persons from varying backgrounds.

He told the youths that they can make a concerted effort to developing solutions for many social problems, including domestic violence. He said that youths must put their foot down and say no to domestic violence.

He added that youths must also say no to teenage pregnancy. Minister Norton explained that having spent all his life in the public health sector, he can say with authority that Guyana is not doing well where maternal deaths is concerned.

He said that most of the complications resulting in death occur among teenagers. It was also mentioned that emphasis needs to be placed on tackling Trafficking in Person. He said that these issues will be discussed during the inter-village programme.

“You the youths have the ability to be creative in such social ills. If you are the person who has the problem, then you are the person who will know how to solve it, but we have to give you that opportunity. We the older persons have to listen to you the youths and to understand why you do certain things, and unless we are prepared to listen to you, to get your ideas, we are not going to solve this problem.”

Meanwhile, delivering the feature address to the young people was Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo. He told the youths that they are intelligent and can therefore place themselves in the midst of the revolution of change in Guyana and the rest of the world.

“So claim your space and you start here; with this inter-village movement as I call it. Social Cohesion is not a ministry, it is a movement, and it is the key movement in Guyana.”

He told the youths that they could be different, but must not become a weapon or a vehicle for division.

Lethem Mayor Carlton Beckles said that as time passed, persons lost the will to be cohesive because of various reasons.

“Some of us would have lost it because we were influenced by people like ourselves with their own ulterior motive. Some of us would have lost because of our own undoing. The mission is to restore Cohesion.”

He said that cohesion was a foreign word to many Guyanese prior to the May 2015 General and Regional Elections. He explained, though, the Social Cohesion Ministry is new, and it is important to the development of Guyana. “Without us being cohesive, we cannot move forward as a nation irrespective of which government is in office.”

Furthermore, Programme Coordinator for the Ministry, Sharon Patterson said that the main focus of the Ministry is “to nurture individual and community relationships as we work towards the goal of creating a unified Guyana”.

She said that when the Strategic Plan for Promoting and Enhancing Social Cohesion was being developed, consultations were held throughout Guyana in all 10 administrative regions, three of which were held in Region Nine.

“It is that consultative process that informed us and the Ministry of Social Cohesion of the actions that are required to promote and enhance social cohesion in our country. That process has informed us that while the government of Guyana is eager to work towards providing an enabling environment for social cohesion, activities of this nature are some of the ways that social cohesion can be promoted.”

Also addressing the youths was Regional Chairman of Region Nine, Brian Allicock. He told the youths that they are ambassadors of their various villages and must take back to their communities what they would have learnt over the five days. 

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