FIVE students of the University of Guyana, reading for their Bachelor of Social Science Degree in Social Work, concluded an eight-week community project at the Sad’r Girls Orphanage at Oleander Gardens, East Coast Demerara. The objective of the project, which was part of their course requirement, was to empower the teenage girls at the orphanage to manage anger, deal with rejection, and acquire the necessary coping skills in preparation for life outside of the institution.
 Assisted by Food for the Poor (Guyana) Inc., the students handed over some personal and other items to the girls as well as the orphanage last Sunday as part of the project’s closing exercise.
It is the group’s belief that teen years for girls today is a period of real danger.  Girls entering puberty often face what is called a ‘crisis in confidence’, which makes them vulnerable to risky behaviour; and bad choices can have devastating lifelong consequences.  
What, perhaps, is even worse than the dangerous opportunities confronting teenage girls is the fact that most of them will not, or do not, have parents to talk to about these dangers they face.  
Over the eight weeks, the group acted as facilitators, in their quest to prepare their teenage charges for life in the real world and the many challenges they will no doubt encounter when they turn eighteen and have to leave the relative safety of the orphanage and fend for themselves.