-Home Affairs Minister urges residents to engage in community activities
THE Ministry of Home Affairs Citizen Security Programme (CSP) community fun day for Plaisance and Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara, took place Saturday at the Plaisance Community Centre ground. The fun day is one of many activities planned by the Ministry under its CSP, when families can participate in a manner that will enhance social cohesion, promote peace and lawfulness and implement social developmental strategies to avert criminal activities in the community.
The community’s fun day saw cultural presentations and crime prevention skits from the St. John’s Boys Orphanage, Glory Light Troopers, the Guyana Police Force ‘A’ Division, and trainees of the programme who reside in the         community.                                                                               Roseanne Purnwasie, Community Action Specialist, CSP, in her address to those gathered, said, “The fun day is not only for the purpose of fun, it is to promote crime and violence prevention by bridging ethnic, generational (age) and cultural differences across the community”. 
The programme trains youth who have dropped out of school or never attended school with life skills so they can earn a living. Some of the area’s youths are being trained in the Plaisance -Vryheid’s Lust communities in cosmetology, garment construction and electrical
installation.  
Purnwasie also stated that in addition to the children being trained, there is child abuse prevention classes open to all members of the community, free of cost, and the youth mentorship programme, where youths are linked to older persons, not to replace parents, but to provide friends who can assist them in developing into responsible members of the society.
Gavin Primo, Commander of ‘C’ Division, urged participants of the training programme to take up the challenge by applying themselves to the skills being learnt and run with it. He further urged family members and parents to get onboard and seek assistance so that it can be a success from which all in the community will benefit, making the community safe for all.   

Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, in his address, stated that this activity plays an integral part in promoting citizen’s security in various parts of the community.
These dramatic presentations convey a message of serious social problems in society, conveyed in a cultural way, Rohee said.
It is therefore important that the ministry tries its utmost to bring out the members of the communities to engage in activities that will bring about social cohesion, the minister said. (GINA)