-at annual Christmas luncheon
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, yesterday urged students of the Kuru Kuru Training Centre (KKTC), a resident facility on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, to embrace the spirit of generosity they feel at Christmas time all year round, in order to effect changes for the better in Guyana. Minister Anthony was speaking at the institution’s annual Christmas luncheon, accompanied by Permanent Secretary, Alfred King, and Assistant Director of Youth, Devanand Ramdatt.
Minister Anthony told the students who undergo training under the Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training Programme (YEST) that if they embrace the concept of being generous all the time, then they will see a different Guyana; and he called on the students to be this agent of change. “You can be the one that goes out there and show people how there is a different way of living.”
He added that once they embraced this concept, and lived accordingly, others will see their commitment to living in a different Guyana, ‘a Guyana where all of us are one and treated as one’.
“It is easy to see things that make us different, it’s easy to see things that pull us apart; but we are living in one space called Guyana; this is our home, this is all that we know and we can make that difference if we can embrace our neighbour and friends and live differently,” he continued.
He expressed confidence that the kind of interactions and the kind of social skills that they would have been taught at the institution would have only resulted in their becoming changed persons; and the ministry expects that as the students return to their communities, they would in turn effect change.
He also told them that the KKTC is a special place that affords young people the skills that they need in order to engage in positive activities for theirs’ and Guyana’s benefit. He added that it is for this reason that the ministry would have, over the years, worked steadfastly to improve the quality of life at the institution and to offer more courses, so that the students entering the institution every year would experience different levels of improvement.
The ministry is committed to seeing, on an annual basis, constant improvement at the institution, and it hopes to, every year, turn around and point to something new that they would have done on the campus, Minister Anthony noted.
Over the next five years, the ministry will be setting for itself new goals, new aspirations, of how to improve the institution that is there to serve the youths.
He reminded, “We want you to understand the larger role that we have for you as you go back out in your community. We expect a lot from you, and we look forward to your graduating in 2012, and making this promise of a prosperous Guyana a reality.”
The event is an annual highlight for the students of the centre, during which the students also display their talents through various cultural pieces.
Students who performed outstandingly at the institution’s annual sports event were also presented awards. Minister Anthony, who also celebrated his birthday, yesterday, was presented with special tokens from the KKTC and the staff of the Ministry of Culture.