THE INTERNATIONAL award-winning St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Youth Club of Port Mourant has announced plans to establish a modern Youth and Indoor Sports Centre as part of its Anti-Drugs and Anti-Suicide campaigns.The centre would be established in the old St Francis Xavier Library which is currently undergoing major restoration and is being coordinated by the members of the St Francis Youth Club under the guidance of several mentors including Secretary/CEO of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club Hilbert Foster and Parish Priest Father Ramesh Vanan.
Foster, who resuscitated the popular youth club last October, said the centre would be open to all youths in spite of their race, religious beliefs and creed since the main objective would be to guide youths in fulfilling their potential in education and sports and also to develop proper role models for others to emulate.
The upper flat of the building would house two offices for counselling of youths who need assistance, a conference hall and library with free internet services.
The lower flat would include a home economics department, sewing department and computer centre for skills training while the games centre would allow youths to learn and play indoor games including table tennis, chess, draughts, dominoes, scrabble, badminton and pools.
Teams for the different sports would be established, as youths would be encouraged to fulfil their potentials at the Inter-County, national and regional level.
Among the activities that would be conducted at the youth centre would be supervised homework for school children, evening classes for students, free research materials and counselling for youths who are drug addicts.
Literacy classes would also be organised for students who dropped out of school while skills training would be held for those interested in computer usage, home economics – cooking, sewing, designing and cake decoration among others.
Educational competitions for debates, essays, public speaking and poetry would also be organised on a regular basis along with sports competitions for the different indoor games. Special classroom lectures would also be organised on topics of interest for youths.
Foster also said members of the youth club would continue a major role in the activities of the St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church as they seek to return the parish to its former glory. He praised the members for the work they have achieved over the last five months and expressed confidence that the Youth and Sports Centre would be opened by August of this year.
The St Francis Youth Club, under the leadership of president Alex Foster, won three Commonwealth Youth Service Awards along with numerous national and Caribbean youth awards.
The main aim of the club is to promote the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings, while at the same time make a positive difference in the lives of youths, the elderly and less fortunate. Over 60 programmes/activities have been successfully completed since Foster resuscitated the club.
The youth club would like to encourage corporate Guyana to assist in making the youth and sports centre a reality by donating the necessary materials and equipment needed, among them being equipment for table tennis, chess, badminton and draughts.
Interested donors can contact Father Ramesh Vanan on 336 6049, Hilbert Foster on 337 4562; Club president Andrew Smartt on 671 5684; secretary Veronica Narain on 694 6095 or email st.francisyouthgroup@yahoo.com