— say men who are part of President Ali’s Men on Mission initiative

AS a father of five sons, Lloyd Famey, 50, understands the importance of how the presence of a father or father figure in the life of young men makes all a difference, and for that reason, he did not hesitate to be among the men to sign up for the President’s “Men of Mission (MoM): 1000-Man Initiative.”

The initiative was launched last Friday.

Famey, who also has three daughters, wants to see a change in the mindsets, attitudes and behaviours of young men in society and believes that the time for change is now.

Famey, who travelled all the way from Long Creek, Soesdyke-Linden Highway to be at the launch, posits that everyone has a part to play in helping to make the change possible and he believes that by being part of the MoM, he can do his part.

“We as men need to step up. There’s a lot of ill things happening in Guyana, and I think I can make a difference. The President has started something good and I want to follow, because I think I could do something about it,” he said.

Famey believes that he could make a difference.

“From day one, I always talk to my sons them and try to impart good knowledge to them and help them to be good young men in society. So I want to do that for others now,” Famey expressed.

Similar sentiments were shared by 41-year-old Zaidi Nurse. Nurse is a father of two, a son and a daughter, and sees this initiative as one that will mean a lot for Guyana.
 

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY
“It’s something that we’ve needed for a long time now. To get the men together so we can get ourselves together, because we have strayed from ourselves. We have to start standing up and stop running away from our responsibility. So I want to be a mentor to help guide someone to help them be better at standing up for their responsibility,” Nurse said.

The brainchild of President, Dr Irfaan Ali, MoM aims to bring together at least 1,000 men from across Guyana to mentor young men and boys and the unique issues facing them.

Though the President was initially looking for 1,000 mentors, at Friday’s launch, it was announced that at least 3,000 men had registered to be mentors in the programme.

This project is meant to uplift the younger generation of men who face many societal ills, such as drug abuse, domestic violence, gang violence and other violent crimes.

This will be achieved by providing them with guidance and counselling, recreational and fitness activities, and creating economic empowerment through temporary employment schemes.

The President also hopes that the programme will take a different angle in addressing the current scourge of domestic violence-related homicides facing the country.

Regional Commander of Divisional Six, Senior Superintendent Shivpersaud Bacchus, was all smiles when he registered to be part of the initiative. He told the Guyana Chronicle of his high hopes for the programme and will also address crime among young people.

He hopes that the initiative will create a ripple effect across generations to ensure that Guyana is truly able to utilise the full potential of its human resource capacity.

“We have to lead and set example for others. Not for our generation only, but for all the generations to come. As we develop as a nation, both men and women have to work together to achieve that common goal or objective,” Bacchus commented

“We will set the platform of who to follow, the persons who we mentor can develop successively to put themselves in society to achieve, not only academically, but also those who are not so academically inclined can follow other traditional trades and can set examples.”