PRESIDENT David Granger has observed Guyana’s grapple with interpersonal violence and aims to steer the country against its culture of violence through measures which tackle the issue at its root.

“We’re going to turn the culture of violence. Some people do not understand that violence was embedded almost in our relations during the first decade of this century. People felt that the only way to resolve a dispute was by violent means — a gun or a knife. We have to move away from that and train our children better in church and in school, in the masjid and the mandir, and let them know that there are ways of resolving controversies without murder,” the President said on the local podcast, Inside Sources, aired on Sunday.

At the time he was speaking to matters of crime and security which have been a challenge for successive governments over the years.

However, with more effective measures being put in place and with greater collaboration with local and international stakeholders, the President believes that much can be done to usher in a safer Guyana.

Speaking to the issue of interpersonal violence and the efforts needed to curb the deadly cycle, he commented: “Certain types of interpersonal violence need different tools…but the police may very well not have the tools to deal with that type of interpersonal violence which results in a lot of wife murders and a lot of forms of domestic violence. A lot of training is being done but we have to examine the culture of young people, what takes place in the schools. We have to embrace civil society; we have to encourage the churches, the mandirs, the masjids to deal with these issues among their congregations. It is not an ethnic problem, it is not a geographic problem, it is widespread.”

The President said that one of the objectives of the re-establishment of the Guyana Youth Corps was to provide young people with opportunities for employment, thereby keeping them too active, to be idle with a life of crime.

He also noted the objectives of the Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS) through which some 4,000 youths have been trained over just three years in the areas of business, entrepreneurship, agriculture, ecotourism and technology.

Coupled with that is the Sustainable Livelihoods and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme which supports the expansion of the local economy in communities.

“The presumption is that once people are working steadily and they have good incomes that they will be less inclined to go into crime…we hope that economic incentives and a strong economic platform would allow more young people to enter the world of work and not the world of crime,” he explained.

The President also highlighted the need for the continuous training and re-training of police officials and the need for better traffic and road safety management.

He noted that the support of the British Government to re-introduce the Security Sector Reform Action Plan will enable a stronger police force to bring criminals to justice, with the help of non-governmental organisations.

Altogether, President Granger informed that there has been much more control over crime in Guyana under the coalition government which vows to continue to increase its efforts to fight crime and violence in Guyana.