–from Police skills training programme

LOTS of cheering, clapping and happy faces were in evidence on Saturday when the Guyana Police Force ‘A’ Division issued certificates to more than one hundred children from Agricola, East Bank Demerara who had participated in an eight-week skills training programme.

This programme, spearheaded by Police ‘A’ Division, was facilitated by the head teacher and staff of the Saint Anne Primary School in Agricola and by Mrs. Indira Hicken, wife of ‘A’ Division Commander, Senior

Superintendent, Clifton Hicken.

The children were rewarded on Saturday for their achievement in sports, academic performance and skills training, all conducted in sessions during the eight weeks of the programme; and skits, poems, singing and dancing welcomed and entertained the guests who turned out to witness the graduation.

Many in the gathering were parents and police ranks.

The head teacher of the school commended the police for the work they had been doing with the community, and moreso involving the school, teachers and parents; and Commander Hicken informed that, arising from the police’s partnership with the community, a long-time friend of the police has indicated that he would take all the children under his care and form a youth group.

This announcement was greeted with cheers from both parents and children.

The children will gather each Saturday at the Saint Anne Primary School for their group sessions, and the Scouts Office of the Guyana

Police Force will be invited to groom the children into becoming scouts, after which they would undergo the required training to enlist as scouts.

Commander Hicken also pointed out that what is very important for the process is sustainability. He related that many good deeds involving programmes for children usually down fall because of the inability of persons involved to ensure that the programmes are sustained.

The parents and school have committed themselves to ensuring that the children continue on the path on which the police have placed them, even as the police vowed to ensure that whatever is required to keep the programmes going in the community would be supplied.

(By Leroy Smith)