Wanting to make a difference in Guyana’s youths with the Programme on Abstinence for Guyana (PAG), the Roman Catholic Diocesan Youth Office in Guyana Saturday took to the streets to advance abstinence awareness.

Solidifying her pledge, this young lady leaves her handprint.

“With everything that is happening in the world, moreso in Guyana, we are trying to promote abstinence as a way of life among youths and are advocating faithfulness among married persons,” Ms. Lucretia Stanton, coordinator of PAG, said.

Stanton and three other volunteers with PAG set up a booth on Water Street, Georgetown, in front of Bounty Supermarket, and invited passers-by to share in the information.

According to Stanton the area sees much pedestrian traffic.

She added that another such initiative was undertaken at Timehri since there was a need for the information there.

Once at the booth, persons were invited to make pledges to practice abstinence; and in order to solidify their pledges, they made their handprints and signed their names.

Afterwards the individuals were given information brochures and commended.

Stanton explained that the public awareness campaign was coming ahead of the group’s Conference on November 7th, at Marian Academy.

“The theme for the conference is Abstinence – Together we can make a difference,” she said.

Making his pledge for faithfulness this man signs on the PAG’s initiative.

This conference is one of many such programmes undertaken by the Roman Catholic Diocesan Youth Office in Guyana, through the PAG.

Among the other initiatives are:

* An awareness day on October 13, 2007, in the compound of the National Library, purposing to make youths aware of the Programme on Abstinence (PAG) as well as to understand the value of choosing abstinence as a way of life; and

* The Abstinence Convention held on June 14, 2008, at the Marian Academy, which aimed at helping young people understand abstinence and encouraging faithfulness.

PAG efforts are in line with the Church’s desire to inculcate high moral standards in the youth of today’s society and to curb the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

To this end, a Training of Trainers’ Workshop on Abstinence was organised through the Roman Catholic Diocesan Family and Life Commission.

This was conducted in June, 2005, by a team of four, from the Governor’s Programme on Abstinence (GPA) in Louisiana, U.S.A.

Ms. Lucretia Stanton, right, engages a passer-by in a one-on-one.

There were 35 participants from over 10 different Roman Catholic parishes throughout Guyana and representatives from other religious denominations were also at the workshop.

Following this workshop, PAG was established based on the need to motivate the youth of Guyana.

The main goal of this programme is to spread the abstinence message to youth, which would inculcate high moral standards and help to curb the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Guyana.

Stanton pointed out that so far the success of the programme has seen more and more young people coming on board.

However, there is a lack of support from adults.

“We work with youths but when they return home they are in the same environment, and because of a lack of support there are hindrances to the programme’s work,” Stanton lamented.
Despite this she asserted that PAG remains committed to its mandate.