THE African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) is currently putting  30 youths from Albouystown, Agricola and Buxton through the paces of a one-year training programme aimed at promoting their social cultural and economic development.

The ACDA special programme is being conducted with the assistance of the Social Inclusion Fund of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB).

Mr. Eric Phillips, an Executive Director of ACDA, disclosed last week that the training aims at improving the skills of at-risk youth from these communities and  improving their chances at succeeding in life.

“The mission is to provide these 30 young people with a life changing experience that will positively impact their lives, their families and their communities,” he disclosed.

“We want to provide  these youths with skills and knowledge and access to business and social networks, so that, on completion, they can set up their own businesses, become more employable and become leaders and role models in their communities and in Guyana as a whole,” he said.

The method is to build upon the potential of “at risk” youth to productively contribute to the development efforts of Guyana.

Disclosing that the project had been 14 months in the making, Phillips said that the beneficiaries are five males and five females from each of the three villages. 

The resource persons are group leaders, one from each community as well as five subject matter experts who were hired for the programme with funding  assistance from the IDB.

The overall programme is being  implemented under the supervision of a group of ACDA Elders, including Elders Violet Jean-Baptiste and Egerton Cooke, with the assistance of seven others.

The content includes leadership training, Agriculture and Environmental Management training, and  mass media and communications skills training.

The students have commenced a six months leadership course which will help them to learn visioning and strategic planning and development of individual and group mission statements.

The leadership programme will help them to become better community leaders and community activists.

They will be expected to create literacy programmes in their communities, create a “Big Brother/ Big Sister” programme in their communities and  develop partnerships with various business groups and companies,  among other leadership roles.

They will also be trained to become contributors to Guyana’s economic future under which they will receive farming, aquaculture and animal husbandry training, including field trips each week to a variety of production facilities such as nurseries, farms, the National Agricultural Research Institute  (NARI) and  aquaculture facilities, among others.

They will manage their own garden and grow food at a location at Thomas Lands, and rear poultry and visit the Iwokrama project and a mining camp as part of the environmental management training segment of the programme.

The mass media and communications training segment  will lead to a “media and communications” certificate programme  in which the expectations are that they will develop knowledge of journalism, skills on the use of studio and digital cameras  and of editing and production processes for television shows.

The 30 students will also go through a “rites of passage” programme which will include exposure to literature, dance, African culture,  creativity and drumming, karate, life skills, drama and spoken words, spirituality and life lessons as part of the overall experience, Phillips disclosed.