The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport lauded the contributions of volunteers to development at a ceremony hosted to launch a report it collaborated on with VSO Guyana and UN Volunteers.
The report was based on an analysis of volunteering in Guyana and a feasibility study of volunteering support platform. It stemmed from “the increasing recognition that volunteerism plays an important role in Guyana’s development,” a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said. The study examined the roots of volunteerism and provides a situational assessment that shows the contribution of volunteerism to social development goals; provides a portrait of volunteering across the full demographic spectrum and highlights local organisations that have integrated volunteering into their projects and programmes.
GINA said the report also found that the strengths of volunteerism are passion and commitment and it is a good example of developing networks and it is a massive contributor to development goals. Some of the concerns arising from the research are immature support infrastructure, vulnerable sector, no specific legislation to enable the use of volunteers, lack of coordination, recruitment and retention, and Diaspora support, the release added. Several recommendations were made, including the development of infrastructure to support volunteers, strengthening thematic local and regional support networks, promoting volunteerism, boosting capacity, focusing on youths, including all regions and support the grassroots.
“We recognise that volunteers are important to any country’s development and very often the work of volunteers are not properly quantified and there is an attempt to do that type of quantification … what kind of volunteering is happening, how can we quantify it and there are other parameters that we would have looked at during this study,” Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, said in his address.
He also noted that volunteering is not new to Guyana and highlighted two recent events where Guyanese volunteers rose to the occasion: the Cricket World Cup (CWC) in 2007 and CARIFESTA in 2009. Anthony said even the ICC recognised Guyana’s success in this endeavour during the CWC and applauded its over 1000 strong volunteer force. He then boasted that Guyana outshone The Bahamas when it undertook to host CARIFESTA as the Bahamians were unable to mobilise the personnel required for an event of that magnitude and was forced to forego hosting the event. Anthony noted that in addition to big events, volunteers can also make a difference in the lives of children, women and elderly persons. He acknowledged that while serving in these areas may not be widely recognised, it makes a difference in the lives of the beneficiaries.
The minister said the study indicated that there is need for better coordination of efforts in order to avoid duplicating work and to ensure that the volunteerism platform is built into a coordinated entity and resources are focused and directed in the most appropriate areas. Anthony then noted that the findings of the research must be put into action and more research conducted.
In her address, United Nations Volunteers (UNV)-Guyana, Programme Officer Michiro Ito said volunteers from the organisation have been in Guyana since 1984, and since that time about 400 international and national volunteers have been serving here. She added that UNV Guyana has also been working closely with government and NGOs in all areas of human development and youth empowerment while Guyana supports UN resolutions on the international year of volunteers and has established a national volunteer day with the full support of government.
The ceremony was held at Umana Yana.
