TWENTY-three young people are involved in a special outreach mission here in Guyana.
Called the Special Task Force (STF), members of the group have committed themselves to volunteer work for a period of one year.
Primarily members of the Unification Church, they fall within the age range of 18 to 19 years old.
The criterion for being involved in STF work is that you must have graduated from high school. Members who are from the United States had to raise funds to finance their travel expenses, and to assist in the projects in which they are involved.
Some of the projects that they are working on are building homes for Habitat for Humanity, working at the Joshua Home, planting mangroves and collaborative efforts with the Islamic Trust Centre.
This is the first STF mission to be held in Guyana.
A number of other countries have already benefited from this organization’s outreach arm, and they are, namely: Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Honduras, St. Lucia, Jamaica, The  Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
In May of this year, STF will be visiting Suriname, and with international participation from countries like India, Japan, Korea and Europe, this Character Leadership Programme promises much.
Held thrice a year, groups of 45 persons fan out to countries that are in need of their intervention.
Their aim is to enhance communication and relationships between youths from North and South America, stimulate co-operation between North, South and Latin America, and address, in a concrete way, some problems that face Third World populations. These problems include lack of potable water, scarcity of housing, hunger and poverty.
STF, now led by Senior Pastor, Rev. Moon, aims to work in conjunction with the Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities in Guyana.
The three-week-long mission ended last week, but the group hopes to return to Guyana for other stints, which would include hinterland communities, joint projects with the National Youth Body and the building of strong networks.
Klien Gauthier, a Canadian, is spending his third year as a volunteer on this programme. He sees STF as a new wave of youths with peace as their focus. He feels that this dynamic body can and will make a difference in our world. While in Guyana, Klein is trying to nurture a ‘generation of peace’.
Eun Hwa Sahra Movada hails from New Jersey, USA and is a second-year volunteer. She is here because she wants to give back to the world. Eun disclosed that before coming to Guyana, volunteers participated in a clothing drive in order to help children here. “STF was created in 1996, with only fifteen people. It changed leadership in 2001 and 2008, and is now under the leadership of Rev. Moon from the USA.
Georgia Pearson is Jamaican, and has lived for a while in Guyana. With the help of Susanne Raychard and Mario Glasgow, the Pure Love Club was formed. The aim of this club is to encourage youths in Guyana to get involved in service work.
This club has already worked alongside youths from the President’s Youth Award Programme. This is Georgia’s third STF stint; the previous two were done in her native Jamaica with great success.
Rev. John Gehring is one of the adults involved in this mission. He believes that religious bodies should not look to governments for all the needs of the people of their respective countries.
“If religious bodies do nothing to tackle these problems,” he said, “how can they expect governments to?” Youths of STF are the first responders. They go out even before things become a serious problem that could lead to violence. 
Generation of Peace plans to be an alternative to gangs, and hopes to generate positive relationships. Sharing cultures can hasten this process.
Youths work with orphanages, do sweat labour with their peers, and even offer language classes when necessary. “We are trying   to bring spiritual and practical solutions to the problems that face us,” Rev. Gehring said.