MORE than 90 youths in the East Coast Demerara community of Buxton/Friendship are currently benefiting from skills training under the Ministry of Home Affairs Citizen Security Programme, youth skills/vocational training component. 
The programme was officially launched on Friday at the Friendship Primary School at Buxton, East Coast Demerara. The trainees will learn skills in eleven areas, including joinery, data entry, mechanic, cosmetology, handicraft, bakery and electrical installation. Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee charged the trainees to approach learning a new skill with passion, describing it as a key ingredient necessary to achieve success. The Minister said that any goal, irrespective of the challenges or sacrifices, must be pursued relentlessly.
Training programmes of this nature are about involving youths with a passion for success, who do not accept failure as a possible outcome, the Minister said. He entreated the trainees to be punctual and the trainers to be good mentors and guides.
Rosanne Purnwasie, Community Action Specialist, Citizen Security Programme, said that the vocational and skills training component had its genesis in the need to engage youths in meaningful activities and expressed the importance of community support in its execution and the accomplishments of its goals.
Buxton/Friendship Community Action Officer Margaret Barnes alluded to Buxton’s “tainted” recent history of bloodshed and violence. Barnes said that with such a programme, the community stands to benefit, as in six months, the 97 trainees, 15 of whom are single parents, will be in a better position to contribute to the development of their community and country. She pointed to Buxton’s educational history, describing it as a proud period, and entreated participants to begin to reverse that trend, even as they seek to better themselves and their families. 

Chair of the Buxton/Friendship Community Action Council, Pastor Terry Thomas, said that already persons are beginning to register for the next phase of the course. He said that this points to the enthusiasm of the youths of Buxton to participate in meaningful activities that positively impact their lives.
The vocational/skills training programme forms part of the Community Action component of the Citizen Security Programme, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank ( IDB). Under the programme, ten high risk communities were selected for skills training by the Programme Implementation Unit of the Citizen Security Programme for skills training of youths between the ages of 14-25.
So far, the programme has been launched in Sophia, Port Mourant, Kilcoy/Chesney, Annandale and Agricola/McDoom. (GINA)