‘A’ Division police have again taken their social crime prevention initiative to the community of Albuoystown, providing the faith-based organizations in that area with resources to sustain their feeding programme for the elderly and children.

Divisional Commander Clifton Hicken and Deputy Commander Ian Amsterdam went into the community last Saturday with their management team, and handed over thirty bags of rice and a gas stove to aid the programme.

The donations were made possible by two separate stakeholders, who have been working with the police over time.

The programme, which will be conducted at the Heavenly Light World Outreach Fellowship, was up and running in the past, but was suspended for lack of resources to sustain it, coupled with inadequate space to prepare meals for those who are in need.

The initiative will see young people from the community also using the kitchen space for practical sessions and cookery classes. While the resources for the programme are located at the Christian church, members of the mandir and the mosque in the community will also partake of the use of the kitchen and contribute to the services provided.

The kitchen will, in future, see a sufficiently sustainable programme in which the organizations will bring on the young people who will make pastries and other items for sale within and outside of the community, and funds garnered will be used to finance other projects in the community, such as a block-making initiative which will be launched shortly.
Commander Hicken explained to the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday in Albouystown that since the Impact Albouystown Project was commissioned last year, the police, in collaboration with the faith-based organizations, have done a multiplicity of programmes to aid the community and its outlook, including leather craft, sewing, block-making, and cosmetology programme, among other things.

He added that because the work the police are doing within the communities has expanded beyond Albouystown, the Force is now constrained to position the already running programme in a way that it can sustain itself, so that focus can be placed in other areas and on other communities across A Division, and by extension, across the country.

Hicken said that, based on statistics, the Albouystown programme has proven that the objective has been met to some extent; crimes in the community have been reduced and the environment is being enhanced by other police initiatives implemented in the past.

The commander said communities will continue to be engaged, based on their needs and the police ability to sustain the programmes. Already there are skilled persons who have volunteered their services to ensure that the feeding programme is executed in the community and is benefiting those targeted.

The police will this week be commissioning a saloon in the community, and this would generate employment for several young people who were part of a training programme that started earlier this year.

Deputy Commander Ian Amsterdam told the Guyana Chronicle that he was recently transferred back to the division, and is pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with the community on the social crime prevention programme, something he could not do in the past since he had been posted to another division soon after the programme was launched last year.

He opined that the initiative will assist the community, and pointed out that while feeding programmes are always good for a community and the less fortunate, they often are taken for granted by those who are fortunate. He saluted the faith-based organizations for making themselves available to facilitate the process of the Guyana Police Force, since the organization understands that it cannot do the job alone.

Pastor Eworth Williams of the Heavenly Light World Outreach Fellowship, like in the past, commended the police for the work being done in the community, and testified of the changes the programme has brought to Albouystown.

Williams said the GPF has been a source of strength to the work of the faith-based organisations in Albouystown in bringing the community together.

The police also used the opportunity to unveil a billboard with a Youth Ambassador from the community of Albouystown, who won a pageant that was organized by the police and featured contestants from the youth groups across “A” Division, with whom the police have been working over the last couple of months.

By Leroy Smith