– Min. Ramjattan takes a shine to the idea

By Gabriella Chapman

WITH just around US$2000 and the welfare of the disadvantaged at heart, the Guyana Conference of Seventh Day Adventists on Thursday launched a project so unique it has Minister of Public Security, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan sold on the idea.

That project is titled “The Inner City Youth Risk Reduction Project”, and according to its coordinator, Elder Murray Greenidge, it was designed specifically for persons between the ages of 20 and 35, as it is at that age that young people are at their most vulnerable.

The launch was held at the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Church on Smyth Street, Werk-en-Rust, where Elder Greenidge is Assistant Community Services Leader, and in which environs the project will be implemented.

As Elder Greenidge shared with invitees, the socio-economic challenges of life can have such a negative impact on persons, it cannot only deprive them of the will to lead positive, productive, and sustainable lives, but also cause them to gravitate to disenfranchisement, drugs, divorce, domestic violence, depression, and ultimately death by means of suicide.

As such, the project is not only designed to assist in improving the reading and literacy levels of beneficiaries, but to provide them also with the skills and knowledge they need to clarify their personal and professional goals, find work, and develop healthy work habits and behaviours that will help them to be effective and efficient in the working environment and ultimately be successful in life.

“It prepares them to be dedicated employees as well as successful entrepreneurs,” Elder Greenidge said, adding:

“An integrated curriculum of life skills, capacity building, vocational skills, remedial English and Math, Entrepreneurship and conscious reasoning augurs for the establishment of a solid foundation on which persons can have a second chance in life. This programme is all about giving persons another chance to stay upright, move forward and keep up the momentum.”

All this was like sweet music to the ears of Minister Ramjattan, as he couldn’t help but express how important such a project is to the country.

‘HONOURED AND DELIGHTED’
“I’m honoured and delighted in this small gathering, dealing with this major issue of support for at-risk youths,” Minister Ramjattan said.

“This kind of programme is something we generally associate with governments busting their brains to ensure it happens. “And to see that the Seventh Day Adventists, both regionally and internationally, would be venturing into this project is giving me tremendous hope that we can do it; this, I would say, is a real gem of a discovery.”

Giving a background as to how the project got started was Director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Pastor Alexander Isaacs, who said he had learnt quite by chance that there was funding available at By Grace Charity, an international NGO that works around the world to alleviate poverty as best as they could.
It was the sort of information he could not very well keep to himself, so he passed it on to the 10 fields that make up the Caribbean Union, of which he is also director, and one of the Unions that comprise the vast Inter-American Division.

“I sent to all the fields, information about this project. You had to do a proposal and get it approved,” Pastor Isaacs said, adding:
“Guyana submitted one of the projects by Murray Greenidge, and it was the first to be selected in the Caribbean Union.”

According to Elder Greenidge, the church has also opened its arms and invited a number of agencies to be a part of the project, and so far it has caught the attention of quite a number of them, including the Massy Group of Companies, the Guyana Prison Service, and the Guyana Police Force.

“We have also been working closely with a number of other business individuals in the Georgetown area, where we have identified them to be mentors for the trainees when they complete the training programme,” he said.