THE Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport on Wednesday hosted day One of its two-day Diversity Education and Inclusion Training with 40 of its supervisory members of staff.

The training session was geared toward observing how the content one gathers can make one better as a leader in one’s organization and community.
Acting Coordinator of the Department of Social Cohesion, Natasha Singh Lewis, during the programme, said, social cohesion speaks to developing individual relationships and community relationships and the role those relationships play in developing a better Guyana.

The training exercise was to ensure that varying persons within the organization were equipped with knowledge on diversity and what an integral part each person could play as it relates to the cohesive development of the country.

According to Lewis “Social cohesion speaks to behavioral changes. Guyana is multi ethnic and multi-cultural so we have many differences. This training seeks to get participants to understand that our differences are not weaknesses, they are our strength. We aim to teach the participants to understand that together we can make our communities function better because of our interrelations.”

During the first day’s programme, the participants took part in interactive activities to demonstrate the importance of working together in completing tasks.

The participants engaged in discussions on varying topics including values and diversity, uncovering biases and stereotypes and how division contributes to weakness.
During the interactive session, Facilitator Will Campbell asked the participants to list varying foods belonging to the 6 ethnic groups of Guyana. He then pointed out that diversity made persons better because no one would want to eat only one type of food forever. Thus, diverse cultures and ethnicities within the country add to the daily lives of persons in simple yet complex ways.

In speaking with Natasha Singh Lewis she said that the ministry decided to host the training exercise in an effort to ensure that it not only shares on diversity with the general public but that its internal personnel would be equipped with the knowledge to better serve in their respective capacities.

“We know that capacity building can only benefit the organization. If we aim to understand ourselves, our prejudices, our rights and our responsibilities, we can enhance what we do, we can then come together and effect positive change within our country,” said Lewis
According to Lewis, the Department of Social Cohesion has taken several strategic steps that are part of a holistic approach, inclusive of training sessions, in an effort to facilitate cross- cultural education throughout the length and breadth of Guyana.

She said the Department has facilitated varying sensitization activities at the community, regional, and municipal levels.

She explained that the Department of Social Cohesion, currently has three phases that it uses for developing cohesion: phase one being community-based activities, phase two being training sessions that the department facilitates and phase three where the persons trained would use the knowledge they gained to plan and implement community projects, in an effort to foster greater inter-cultural relationships.

“So the training is the second step and the projects at the community level is the third step when we go into the community to execute the project we get to learn a lot more of the communities so it gives us a gateway to work with individuals within the community, outside of the persons we have trained,” explained Lewis.