– youth of the Buxton/Friendship community happy to serve

YOUTHS within the Buxton/Friendship community benefitted from a youth empowerment project which lasted for seven weeks; closing with a grand ceremony on Sunday, July 22 at the Friendship Methodist Church auditorium.

The project was carried out by the ‘Women of Purpose’ group, who are fourth year Social Work students of the University of Guyana. These included Ms. Vonetta LeBlack – team leader, Ms. Kewana Carrington, Ms. Joveta Joseph, Ms. Caslyn Nicholson, Ms. Akeshia Haynes and Ms. Brandy Liverpool.

The Social Work group took on the task of developing the Buxton/Friendship community by educating the youths on topics such as entrepreneur skills, health education, communication, suicide, building self-esteem, common courtesy for young adults, public speaking and dining etiquette. These interactive sessions were all conducted at the Friendship Methodist church.

Recognising the needs
Because of the familiarity of one of the members of the group to the needs of the youths within this community the Women of Purpose group felt that it would be a privilege impart their knowledge and skills towards aiding in the education and development of this Buxton/Friendship community.

Part from educating the youth on the topics mentioned, the Women of Purpose group conducted a clean-up campaign within community and carried out health walk, where they shared out leaflets on health issues and how to prevent many them.

Interactive and enlightening

Additionally, community members were encouraged to know about their health status in a general manner by visiting the Health Centre clinics regularly. The response to this venture was overwhelming.

“The villagers were very responsive; they really worked with us and we can say that they cooperated at a very high level, with contraceptives, drug abuse issues and the like,” the team told the Guyana Chronicle.

The team reported that they could not expect a better response from many of the young members of the community. “They showed that readiness to listen and responded positively to the discussions we had,” stating that many of them said that they were eager to stop smoking and would be following-up with the flyers, which were showing them where they could go to get help.

Other activities
The Women of Purpose team, recognising that some further needs within the community such as giving the community a face lift, got involved in the repainting of the pedestrian crossing in front of the Friendship primary school, as well as other clean-up activities within the community.

Cookout and game days also formed part of project intervention undertaken by the youth of the Buxton/Friendship community and the Women of Purpose group.

According to the Women of Purpose group, it was a great pleasure interacting with the youth and the residents of the Buxton/Friendship community and it was also a great experience applying what was taught to in theory – putting it into practice with the wonderful people of the community.

“We would like to thank Pastor Nailes from the Friendship Methodist church for providing accommodation for us to conduct our project; the youth and members of the community who were punctual for each activity, the Vigilance Police Station, Ministry of Public Health, Ms. Mignon Bowen-Phillip from the CARICOM Secretariat and also the Food for the Poor (Guyana) Inc.