— activists hail President’s announcement of ‘1,000 Men’ initiative as ‘much-needed’

BOYS and young men have unique psychosocial needs that very often get pushed to the back burner in the multitude of existing and developing socioeconomic matters, and, for this reason, many activists are describing President, Dr. Irfaan Ali’s recent announcement of his “1,000 Men” initiative as timely and critical.

President Ali had recently announced that his government is working on a programme that will be headed by himself that is aimed at bringing together some 1,000 men from across Guyana to address the problems facing boys and young men.

Under the programme, some 1,000 men, including senior officers of the Joint Services, religious and business leaders, entertainers, sportsmen and community workers, among others, will be deployed all across this country, targetting the eradication of violence across society, through making men and boys good and responsible citizens within society.

“The timing is good for something like this; we need something that targets men. It’s something important that needs to happen in Guyana right now,” stated Dimitri Nicholson, Executive Director of Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG).

“Young men and boys face many different kinds of challenges that are not necessarily addressed because of culture, that’s why targetting men and boys is very important. If we help young men and boys to manage themselves better, we will end up with less crime, less difficulties in the homes, less broken families and so on.

Often these issues are neglected by men because they’ve never been taught how to deal with them. They don’t have that many role models to see good families and good family values, so they behave in ways that are unacceptable to society.”

Gender-based violence is an issue in Guyana, particularly in the case of domestic abuse against women. Overcrowding in many of the country’s penitentiaries due to the rate at which men are being arrested for crimes is also an issue.

This is believed to have some link to the upbringing of young boys in Guyana, particularly in the case where they are brought up in single-parent homes with little or no supervision.

YCG is a NGO that works to enhance the lives of youth through health, education, life skills and livelihood. The organisation does much work with trying to build good behavioural skills in young men and boys.

“Through our work, we know that there’s a greater degree of support needed for young men and boys in our communities. Young men are affected by violence in two ways: they’re perpetrators of violence and they can be victims of violence. So something like this is really, really good for the development of young men and boys in Guyana,” Nicholson shared.

MUCH-NEEDED
Disability activist and Programme Coordinator at Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD), Ganesh Singh, described the programme as “much-needed”, noting that too often young men and boys are left without proper mentors to steer them onto the right path in life.

“It’s a programme that will provide much-needed mentorship. We are in a society where a lot of our young men and boys idolise the wrong persons, so having leaders within the community that are of good stature, who are of some level of importance and success, it will be an inspiration and motivation to young men who sometimes go astray without the necessary guidance,” said Singh.

He added: “It will have a big impact because too often young men are not being meaningfully engaged with their capabilities. Many of them would revert to drugs and anti-social behaviour, and something like this would definitely put them on the right track so it will have long-term positive effect on our society.”

In this regard, he is hopeful that when the specifics of the initiative are ironed out, there will be involvement of persons from the disability community, as he believed the inspirational stories from PWDs fit with the kind of motivation that young men and boys need.

Singh said the President must be commended for seeing the need to implement such an initiative and leading from the front by heading the programme.

Headteacher of the West Demerara Secondary School, Harry Narine, is also looking forward to seeing the realisation of the President’s initiative. He hopes that it will include a component that specifically targets the young boys in schools.

“I think gradually the President should see a need to broaden the horizon to have programmes in the school system, especially programmes involving technical work so that we can develop the skills of the young men. I hope that this whole idea will stretch itself to schools and other institutions where there are young men— the Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force, and all other major government organisations in Guyana,” the headteacher expressed.

Narine is hoping that the programme will bring about a level of awareness of the issues facing young men and boys and give them a level of empowerment that they need in order to make better choices and better face the various issues in society.