Professional Youth Alliance Guyana (PYAGuy) on August 13, launched their “INSPIRE CHANGE for Young Women and Girls” Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Project at their Barr Street, Kitty location.
The project was launched, Media Coordinator, Teisha Milner said, because of the prevalence of the unfair treatment of girls and young women in society.

‘INSPIRE CHANGE’ is a community-based multi-cultural programme, designed to empower young women and girls. The programme will focus on four main areas, namely:  personal development, leadership, life skills and employment. The programme is aimed at inspiring, encouraging, enhancing and developing young women and girls through creative training and practical sessions. The goals are to promote positive messages to young people; build and strengthen women and girls’ support group and to create community building through training.
Said Milner, “This very innovative GBV project seeks to target girls and young women between the ages of 13 – 26. The execution of the project will utilize a significant amount of Art and Craft by providing many opportunities for creative art expressions.”
Once a month, the selected young women and girls will be exposed to innovative training workshops, which will give them the opportunity to gain the skills and confidence to make a difference in their school and community, as well as uncover their leadership abilities and move to action.
Each participant will be a part of a dynamic learning group made up of a mentor/ counsellor who will facilitate change. The programme style will take on that of a workshop and group counselling, which will encourage team work and relationship building amongst its members. Each component of the programme will provide a nutritious snack and safe space for the young women and girls to express themselves and learn new skills.
Milner said it is hoped that at the end of this project, girls and young women will become more empowered; have better relationships with self, family and community; understand GBV and methods of prevention; understand issues affecting them and to develop positive relationships with peers and partners.
PYAGuy is an organisation for young people run by young people and it was created to facilitate training, consultations, community outreach activities, service to young professionals and youth organisations and networking between youth leaders and organisations. To date, the group has worked with young people in Regions Two, Three and Four. Professional development is key on the organisations agenda and as such many of their programmes are executed with this in mind the media coordinator concluded.