–Minister tells YLTP graduands

FORTY-four youths from Region Nine are now in possession of valid leadership certificates after successfully completing a one-week Youth Leadership Training Programme (YLTP).They received those certificates during a graduation exercise on Friday at the Indigenous Peoples’ Conference Hall in Lethem.

Youths were drawn from Moco Moco, St. Ignatius, Culvert City, Nappi, Parishara, Tabatinga and Lethem.

According to Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Mr. Sydney Allicock, who delivered the charge at the exercise:
“Government has heard the clarion call for the improvement in the quality of our local leaders; we learnt of the need for the strengthening of leaders’ capacity to negotiate, to conceptualise projects, create project proposals, and to record and report on finances.”

Minister Allicock, himself a leader worthy of emulating, went on to say: “It is not by mistake (that) you are being trained; it is because there is a need for Guyana, and first of all, for Region Nine to be fully prepared for the development that we anticipate.”

OIL FIND
In obvious reference to oil giant, Exxon Mobil’s recent announcement, he said, “I am quite certain you are aware of the great oil find. We cannot wait until we see the oil; we have to prepare now; we have to prepare today.”

Noting that David Granger-led administration is always ready to heed the call, particularly where creating an enabling environment for the nation’s youths is concerned, Minister Allicock, by way of encouraging his charges to make use of the opportunity, said:
“Education is a right; not a privilege! Your responsibility now must be to ensure you pass on this information to those in your respective villages and communities… using the knowledge you have gained here!”

HIGH PRAISE
Coming in for high praise from the minister was Presidential Advisor on Youth Empowerment, Mr Aubrey Norton, the brainchild behind the YLTP initiative, from Minister Allicock whom he said “remains one of Guyana’s foremost youth leaders… and fully understands, better than most, the dynamics of education and the progression of youth in the different spheres of life in Guyana.”

Norton would later explain that for years, there had been no critical youth leadership programmes, and that as such the programme he helped formulate had to be thorough.
“This is a comprehensive programme that seeks to give persons the required information they need to develop as leaders,” he said, adding:
“It emerged because, across the country, we find a lot of young people are in youth organisations etc., but they have not been exposed to training to improve their performance.”
But that is all in the past, he said. “Government believes that solutions to a number of problems in Guyana will have to be solved at the level of the youth; so, as part of the thrust of youth, we have developed a youth policy, which will be going to Parliament…”

SIMILAR PROGRAMMES
Minister Allicock said he hopes similar training programmes will be carried out in all 212 hinterland villages and communities, since it is a way of complementing the ongoing Hinterland Employment and Youth Service Programme (HEYS).
“This is a bold and enormous step taken in fulfilling the Coalition government’s commitment to Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples in a positively impacting way.”

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Maxine Welch, reputedly one of the country’s youngest Deputy Mayors, as well as Mark George were awarded for exemplifying best leadership qualities, while the award for most outstanding male and female personalities went to Frederick Stephen and Hayeeyah Asgar respectively.

Among facilitators were Head of Education and Training, Ronald Austin Jr.; Head of Research and Planning, Adeti De Jesus; Head of Administration, Fayon Marshall; and Community Officers Fiona Hamilton, Atisha Daly, and Suraj Narine.

According to Austin, this is the fifth leadership programme that has been conducted so far for 2016 at the Department of Culture, Youth and Sports’ Madewini Training Camp, with participants being drawn from Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10.

The graduation exercise was also attended by Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams; Region Nine Assistant Regional Executive Officer, Althea Fitzpatrick; and friends, relatives and well-wishers of the graduands.