COMMONWEALTH YOUTH WORK WEEK AND ENRICHMENT OF YOUTH PROGRAMES

Dec 01, 2019 Consumer Concerns, News

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By PAT DIAL

Between November 4 and November 10, “Commonwealth Youth Work Week” was commemorated in the 53 nations of the Commonwealth under the theme “Youth Work in Action”.
The Week was launched by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland, who has West Indian roots. In her brief but comprehensive address titled “Young People need our Support- We must seize this tremendous opportunity” she outlined the national and personal developments which youth work could bring and at the same time mentioned some of the training opportunities which the Commonwealth offers.
These offerings include the new Commonwealth Degree and Diploma in Youth Work and the Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Workers Associations (CAYWA) which is an international organization of professional youth work associations facilitating the cross-pollination of ideas and collegial support among the Associations.
Over the last several years, Guyana has had a number of valuable youth programes organized by both Government and NGO’s. Such programmes had offerings on Education in various fields, Sport, Technical training in various skills and development of entrepreneurial capabilities and ventures.
The latest youth effort is the organization of an NGO named ‘Youth and Oil Association’ which is directed at helping young professionals and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the budding Oil and Gas sector. The media has been giving fairly generous and continuous coverage to these Youth Programmes and it is probably this that has led to the comparatively low-keyed coverage of “Commonwealth Youth Work Week.”
It would be in Guyana’s interest to strengthen its Commonwealth connections since it could result in the development of “special relationships” with several important Commonwealth countries. Such countries could lend international support to Guyana.
In this regard, both the media and the Commonwealth desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could be more active.
In the majority of developing countries, youth now forms between 60% and 70% of the population. This has made it incumbent that youth development should be a priority both from a national and individual standpoint.
Nationally, it would ensure that there would be an efficient and sufficient workforce to successfully man the economy of the next generation and individually, youth programmes are designed to produce well-rounded persons and to help young people to channel their energies and talent in positive directions and be guided towards healthy and productive lives.
In Guyana we have tended to develop Youth Programmes without full understanding of linkages with the entire span of life. Three or four generations ago, when there were no youth programmes, socialization and the training of youth was done by the family and community.
The youth were taught the basics of earning a living and given a religio- ethical grounding. and an indication that his present life was linked to the entire span of life. In all the ancient cultures, the phases of life were precisely articulated. Among the most known in Guyana is the Indian system – the fourfold division of life, which we will give as an example.
In the Indian System, the span of life is divided into four segments- the first quarter of life was known as Bhramchari or the time of studentship. During this first segment of life, the young person is educated in the skills he would require in the rest of life.
For instance, he would learn a trade or profession, reading, writing and numbers, given a grounding in ethics and religion – in effect preparing the young student for the next quarter of life – the stage of being a householder.
In the Householder’s stage, known as gharhastya, the young person would be married, bring up a family earn his livelihood, create his home and other material things and learn something of the Arts. The third segment of life is known as Vanaprasta, when the matured man gives public service however best he can, be as charitable of his time and substance as he is able to afford, and still offers guidance to his grown -up children and grand children.
In this stage, the person learns to free his hold of material things or vice versa, the hold of material things on him. He also begins to turn his mind to philosophy and God. In the fourth or final quarter of life known as Sanyasa, the aging man settles his worldly affairs, prepares for death, and devotes himself to God. These four stages are not mutually exclusive but dovetail into each other.
These various youth programmes would be enriched and made more relevant if participants were to realize that their programmes had linkages to the entire stream of life as outlined above in the Four Segments of Life.
Though over the years there had been many modern and valuable youth programmes offered or supported by Government and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO;s), there had never been any formal and methodical evaluation of them. This omission needs to be corrected since evaluations would help to better future programmes and increase their impact and success.

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