Dear Editor,
I was very heartened to read that the Brownies and Girl Guides organization is still very much alive and well, after reading a recent article in your newspaper. Just imagine similar groups like these being replicated in every community across Guyana!
As a youngster, I so badly wanted to be part of the Brownies but my mother could not have afforded to buy the uniforms for both me and my sister at the same time. Suffice to say, I still learnt a lot from my older sister, who got the chance to later become a Girl Guide. I remember clearly the organization at the Mildred Mansfield building at the head of Brickdam.
As I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve realized it’s more than just instilling “good morals”, into our young people, whatever that means now in our materialistic-driven society. What the organizers might want to do is get expert help on teaching these precious minds the value of self-esteem among other character-building traits. These areas were part of what Brownies and Girl Guides taught its club members.
There are a few organisations like the Commonwealth Youth Programme, BESO and CESO which will eagerly help with these and like-minded initiatives.
A girl-child with positive self-esteem grows into a confident, self-reliant and educated young woman who can make informed choices later on in life. It’s the first of many, tiny steps towards reducing the debilitating scourge of Domestic Violence.
It was shocking to learn of DV victims as young as 18 years old and thus my initial thought was how could they have gotten themselves into these situations in the first place. Then my mind drifted to their mothers and the question popped-up; are they any better or know any different?
Everyday I read the newspapers and am saddened and burdened that in many instances, these deaths are preventable. If only there were organizations like the Brownies and Girl Guides that these young women and those not so young, were able to benefit from, cultural differences aside.
It would do well for our civic groups, Old Students Associations at home and abroad and every conceivable organization that does not have a political inclination to embrace these initiatives and use them as conduits to educate our girl child and women about self-esteem, self-respect, self-reliance and independence so that in the future they can make better and informed choices; that they know to value themselves and see themselves as worthy and special.
I would be insincere if I don’t urge for the resuscitation of the Boy Scouts organization as well, which would target our young boys and men, engendering similar characteristics we want inculcated in the females. Additionally, more specific areas like anger-management and conflict resolution will certainly be part of the training.
Let me hasten to say that like poverty, Domestic Violence will never be eliminated but can be reduced, but unlike the former, Spouse and Child Abuse is not limited to nationality, class or ethnicity. Let’s begin working on the solutions and these are just some! Once again best wishes and much success to the few groups in Guyana which are trying to make a difference.
Yours faithfully,
Sheron Forde
