RHTYSC, MS Cricket Teams, Panthera Solution launch Say No to Suicide Programme

Jun 24, 2019 Sports

The Ancient County of Berbice is widely known as the ‘Suicide Capital of the World’ due to the high rate of suicide on an annual basis compare to its overall population. The Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club, MS and its ten Cricket Teams have over the last two years spearheaded highly successful Say No/Say Yes Programmes directed to over 70,000 youths in Region 5 and 6. Under this programme, the ten teams encouraged youths to Say No to Suicide, Drugs, Crime, Tobacco, Alcohol and Yes to Education, Life, Culture, Sports and Religion.

Panthera Solution General Manager Andrew Dinsdale hands over
the sponsorship to Hilbert Foster in the presence of his staff.

Guyana’s leading youth & sports organisation on Thursday last continued to expand the programme by joining hands with Panthera Solution, a recently established Company in Guyana with its origin in Canada. Panthera Solution handed over a cheque for US$1,500 which would enable the cricket teams to publish 1,000 more copies of its widely read Youth Information Booklet. The forty pages booklet would be published at the F & H Printery in Georgetown and would be distributed free of cost to schools, churches, NGOs and youths.
The Booklet which is being edited by the Club’s Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster, MS and his deputy Simon Naidu comprised of twenty seven articles. Among the topics covered in the well research booklet are Suicide, The Importance of Education, The Importance of Discipline, Personal Hygiene, Do’s and Don’t on Facebook, General Sports Etiquette, A Sportsman as an Ambassador, Drug Abuse, HIV/AIDS, Peer Pressure, Basic Public Manners, Public Speaking, Teenage Pregnancy and Pre Marital Sex, Basic Advice for Teenage Females, the Importance of Religion, Choosing Friends, Respect for Elders, How to behave during a Public Ceremony, Table Manners, Manners in the Classroom and How to handle a Job Interview.
Since its first edition, six years ago the Youth Information Booklet has been read by thousands of youths and has been a major assistance to them. The National Awardee hailed the cooperation of the Management of Panthera Solution and its local hosting partner Farfan & Mendes Ltd in making it possible to sponsor another edition of the very popular booklet.
The Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club, he stated, would expand the Say No/Say Yes Campaign by printing 11’ x 17’ Say No Posters for every classroom in Berbice, sharing out $1M in school bags and $500,000 worth of cycles to less fortunate students. Additionally another major sponsor would be unveiled shortly to publish another one thousand copies for the Clubs and the Berbice Cricket Board.
Foster urged the Government of Guyana to place special emphasis on the problem of Suicide in Berbice as too many youths were taking away their lives too early.
He noted that he was a patient at the Port Mourant Hospital for one week and observed a large amount of youths who attempted suicide. He stated that the elder section of the population need to promote the message that problems are only a temporary stage of live, while Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
General Manager of Panthera Solution, Andrew Dinsdale, expressed thanks to the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club for allowing his Company to come on board as a sponsor of such an important project. The newly established Company hopes to offer major services such as Scaffolding, climbing among others.
The Company which is 51% owned by Guyanese has employed over a dozen Guyanese to date, who are currently being trained. A confident Dinsdale stated that the Company would employ about 500 Guyanese within the next five years.
The booklet would be officially launched on Friday 19th July, 2019 during an Award Ceremony at the St. Francis Youth Centre. The Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club would like to express gratitude to Onai Vasconcellos of Farfan & Mendes Ltd for arranging the sponsorship.