By Gabriella Chapman

MERUNDOI and a team of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) launched a new television series Tuesday evening at the National Cultural Centre.
This series, titled “The Helpline”, is part of a project being funded by the European Union. This project aims to bring about suicide awareness and foster change to alleviate, if not eradicate, the scourge in Guyana.

The project incorporates three NGOs, namely Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG), Family. Awareness. Consciousness. Togetherness (FACTS) and Merundoi.
Each is responsible for a different part of the project, with Merundoi being the producer of the television series.

The head of Delegation of The European Union to Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and for The Dutch Overseas Countries & Territories, Ambassador Jernej Videtic, urged that all make full use of the programme.

He also noted the efforts being made to change the legislation, which allows persons who attempt suicide to serve jail time. This, he said, is not beneficial to victims and he believes that they deserve better help than incarceration.

Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Dr. Suzanne Siebs said suicide is a serious public health problem that can have lasting, harmful effects on individuals, families and communities.

“We must have effective prevention strategies that are needed to promote awareness of suicide and encourage commitment to societal change. It’s everybody’s business and should be undertaken as your personal responsibility,” she said.

Dr Siebs applauded Merundoi for their exceptional work in raising awareness of suicide.
“The aim must be to effect positive change in Guyana and the premiere of the helpline is certainly one more positive step to making an incredible difference in the lives of Guyanese.”

This newspaper spoke with the writer of the script for “The Helpline”, Mosa Telford, who said the idea started out as a six-episode series, but after editing, it turned into a two-hour movie.

Though focused on suicide awareness, Telford said that other issues were highlighted, such as child sexual abuse and domestic violence, just to name a few.

“The whole idea is that it brings about some sort of change and hopefully people who are struggling with certain issues can be inspired to seek help. When people watch it, if there is somebody that’s going through something like that, I really hope they would decide to seek help or talk to family members, or a friend, or even utilise the various helplines we will highlight in the series,” the young woman said.

She added that the script was written in a way to be enjoyed by a general audience and will be aired on a regular basis, on TV stations across the country.