Using volunteerism to make the world a better place… YCG Executive Director, Dmitri Nicholson, is a ‘Special Person’

Feb 16, 2020 News, Special Person

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“Volunteering has a lot to do with your drive, there is no one size fits all when it comes to getting into this kind of activity, but if you want to make a difference, you will find the space that is best for you to do that. When I decided to do this, I didn’t do it for the accolades or because I wanted to be recognised, so to speak; I just did it because I saw I could use my skills as a facilitator and a creative problem solver to help other young people to be able to find their own solutions to their problems.”

By Sharmain Grainger

About two decades ago, a young man decided that he would embark on a journey of volunteerism. It was a path he didn’t know he needed to tread, but for some reason, life’s circumstances steered him in that direction.

Maybe it was a chance to get away from his regular life; but he would learn, eventually, that it was an opportunity to grow and morph into a human being who has an appreciation of how important it is to help others and not expect anything, other than their upliftment, in return.
The young man who embarked on this path, unlike many before him and many more who will come, to this day, has not seen volunteerism as a stepping stone to a more lucrative career, but rather, a destined forte that he must continue to embrace if life is to remain worth living.
Being duly featured today as our ‘Special Person’ of the week, is Dmitri Nicholson, a son of the soil, with what some may describe as a ‘mysterious drive’ to reach the pinnacle of volunteerism.
And after years of treading this path, he has no question that he made some good life choices that have today, though belatedly, thrust him into the limelight of recognition for never reneging or turning his back on those who need that extra help to get their life on the right path.
Through his affiliation with Youth Challenge Guyana [YCG], which is said to be one of the leading youth empowerment agencies in the country, providing effective education, health, life skills and livelihood programmes, Dmitri said, “I got the chance to work with young people who had many different circumstances, and helped them to bring out their best.”
According to him, “The satisfaction I got from helping these young people explore their own potential to become better individuals, is what sort of kept me going, or moved me in the direction of this type of career.”
BECOMING A TEACHER
But the results of choosing this path back in the day was not as clear as they currently are to him today. In fact, Dmitri, whose earthly existence started on July 9, 1980, tried for a spell to understand the concept of volunteerism before reaching to the point of no return.
It all started in the late 1990s, when Dmitri was caressing the idea of becoming a teacher in the mainstream school system. It certainly wasn’t a passion of his to become a teacher, but he had long recognised that “I had a natural gift for working with young people, and I thought teaching was the area that was going to help me explore that.”
Raised as a city boy in a nuclear family, Dmitri has fond memories of his boyhood days, many of which he spent in Kitty and then East Ruimveldt. He didn’t share too much about his parents and siblings, during his recent interview, but what remains etched in his mind to date are the many interactions, which he had as a young boy while living in an apartment building in Kitty.

“What I loved about it, is that we had many other children to play with…it was quite a multi-ethnic environment, so I had an appreciation, as a young person, for people of different cultures,” said Dmitri, as he recalled his family eventually moving to East Ruimveldt for space and to be closer to his paternal grandmother.
He attended a number of primary schools because of the move, which culminated at St Gabriel’s, and subsequently positioned him for a place at Christ Church Secondary. Not satisfied with his CXC performance, Dmitri, who from a young age developed a knack for good decision-making, decided to shore-up his secondary education by attending Saint Stanislaus College.
By the time he graduated, he met the criteria to become a teacher, and was accepted as a Temporary Qualified Master at Sacred Heart Primary. He remembers all too well his inaugural pay cheque of $13,566, and though it didn’t allow him to do much, he intimated, “it felt good working.”
Reflecting on those days, he recalled, “I was kind of an own way person…so I didn’t hear much about what people had to say, I just wanted to do what I think I wanted to do,” said Dmitri, when asked if, as a young boy, he had envisioned himself as a teacher. He quipped, “I didn’t like Mathematics, so what I knew even then is that what I was going to do; it would not have anything to do with Maths.”
AN AWAKENING
Interestingly enough, it was while teaching that he got an inclination to dabble in volunteer work. And Dmitri remembers vividly how it all came about. “One day I heard an ad on the radio that you can spend some time in the interior volunteering…the ad was telling you how you could help people and I just decided to call the number that was announced, and it was Youth Challenge Guyana [YCG].”
Back in 1998, YCG was reaching out to persons of different backgrounds to help achieve its volunteerism goals. This was quite intriguing for Dmitri, who had not only developed a passion for international exchange relations, but he also wanted a break from his routine existence. “I wanted to get away,” said Dmitri, as he recalled the pull to become involved in volunteer work. But even at this point, he wasn’t sure this was his calling.
“I didn’t think of volunteering as an opportunity then, but when I signed

up for this [YCG] programme, I started to volunteer at the Red Cross for a little while. I just wanted to see how I would feel volunteering…so I tested it out, so to speak,” Dmitri recounted. He was able to learn skills as a First Responder, and eventually became a First Aid Instructor in the afternoons after teaching.
He was able to uncover a side of himself that he didn’t even know existed, and it all felt so natural being able to insert himself into the multi-cultural environment of the Red Cross, by virtue of its international reach.
As he embraced this new path, it became clear that he was prepared for the 1999 July to September interior journey with YCG.
But getting on board with YCG, required that persons have a little bit more than just a desire to volunteer. According to Dmitri, as part of the entry requirement to volunteer, persons had to be successful at the YCG’s selection weekend, during which they had to fund-raise a certain amount of money.
YCG LIFE
Outspoken and oozing an abundance of self-confidence, Dmitri excelled during selection weekend and was among those chosen to be further prepped for the volunteerism getaway in Guyana’s hinterland region. Preparation for this journey entailed learning to swim, understanding how to apply first aid, and developing interpersonal and communication skills.

Setting out on the eight-week long journey intended to take education and needed life skills to Region One, on this occasion, were not only Guyanese volunteers such as Dmitri, but others from Canada and Australia too. “I thought I was really good as a teacher because I’d taught before…I did well with the children in the schools. We used a method from the Bahá’ís called ‘On the wings of words’,” Dmitri shared, as he recalled being inspired, after the eight weeks of volunteerism, to become a trained teacher.
Encouraged by other teachers to embark on this training, Dmitri joined the student fraternity at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE). But as he recalled it, “Unfortunately that did not work out in the way I was expecting. For two reasons, one: I am a bit of a radical, an own way person; and I like to see how rules apply, and if they do, I follow how they apply and if I don’t think the rules are necessary for an adult, I’m going to question it, and CPCE was not the place for me, because I was a bit too outside of the box.”
But as fate would have it, just when Dmitri decided to part ways with the teachers’ training college, YCG had an opening for an intern, which he applied for and was accepted. Soon after, Dmitri was pursuing a degree in International Relations at the University of Guyana. He certainly didn’t mind letting YCG get the best out of him.

“How the organisation worked, as a small entity, different projects came into the organisation and you got exposure to many different areas of knowledge and work, and as you got the exposure to these different areas, you sort of gained a bit more seniority in the organisation,” Dmitri shared. He developed a knack for writing outstanding funding proposals, which was one of the main reasons that the organisation continues to thrive to this day.
“I have a high drive for this work and I don’t slow down, and because of that drive and my ability to get resources, I kept being elevated and offered additional responsibilities, although on occasions the additional responsibilities and elevation did not come with the kind of remuneration you expected, because the resources were limited,” Dmitri revealed. But this never dampened his spirit, since he felt that he was being his true self in this realm of work.
“I really liked the success of the work that we were doing. For example, I saw lots of people who benefited from the HIV and AIDS work that we were doing…so many people who had no knowledge about condoms or safe sex, suddenly had the epiphany that they can have safe sex. I saw young people who were affected by HIV, who felt devastated by it, and because of programmes, which we were able to do with them, they had a renewed sense of value for their own lives,” Dmitri related with pride.
The work of YCG has been farther reaching, according to Dmitri, who assumed the role of Executive Director in 2012. He pointed out that “Young people who would have otherwise turned to crime, went through life skills training with us, and after that decided they might have a more stable and sustainable livelihood…that is one of the reasons I continue to do this work.”
REMAINING FOCUSED
But remaining focused and dedicated to volunteerism has not been without some concerns being tossed Dmitri’s way. “Many people would come up to me, even nowadays, and say ‘how you still with this organisation?’ They see what I am doing as a career boost, but the fact is, I am very creative in finding solutions to problems…I am a creative problem solver and I can use that to help people. I value being in an environment where I can get to identify a problem, and work with a team to solve it, and as a result of seeing results consistently, I’ve remained with the organisation. If we go to help 10 people, then 10 people will get good help, and over time you can see the difference in their lives,” Dmitri noted.
In fact, he confidently added, “I may not be able to do a longitudinal study, but for the people I know who would have been through the programmes we offer, their lives are much different now; they are much better people than when I first met them.”
Despite the major impact which the work he does has had on society, Dmitri has remained a ‘simple and down to earth’ kind of guy. “I am not an elaborate and flamboyant person, I like very calm things. Yes, I am very outgoing, I love soca music and soca concerts, and I enjoy being around people and having a good time, but I am very simple,” Dmitri insisted. In fact, aside from his volunteerism work, he gets immense satisfaction from making his wife, Lauressa, and his young daughter, Zemirah, happy.
“My life changed dramatically when I got married, and even more so when I got my daughter. During that process as well, I learned so many things, and one of the things I’ve learnt is that I love being a father; I enjoy fatherhood. It is precious in a context where you get to reflect a lot. I like to reflect a lot on where I came from and where I am going. I don’t want the things I don’t like about my own life to be transferred to my daughter, so every day I am working on improving myself so I have good habits that my daughter can emulate,” said Dmitri.
But even with the addition of family responsibilities, Dmitri continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the realm of volunteerism. The key to remaining dedicated to this kind of work is not only by being selfless, he disclosed, but by having an ingrained passion to keep doing more.
“Volunteering has a lot to do with your drive, there is no one size fits all when it comes to getting into this kind of activity, but if you want to make a difference, you will find the space that is best for you to do that. When I decided to do this, I didn’t do it for the accolades or because I wanted to be recognised, so to speak; I just did it because I saw I could use my skills as a facilitator and a creative problem solver to help other young people be able to find their own solutions to their problems,” Dmitri shared.
And so for remaining true to a cause that has influenced positive changes for many in our society, we at Kaieteur News duly bestow Dmitri Nicholson with our title of ‘Special Person’.

 

 

 

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