Dear Editor,
With reference to the article headed ‘Three organisations holding youth conference promoting violence-free environment’ in SN of Sunday, July 29, Rights of Children (ROC) would like to make the following clarifications.
ROC was asked via email in May of this year to be a partner in this conference which we understood meant planning the conference. We were asked to identify young people who could attend the conference and to seek funding for the conference. We clearly stated that we would not be seeking sponsorship from any organisation on behalf of this event and we would only be making a presentation on sexual harassment, an issue which we have been dealing with in high schools across Guyana over the past three years.
In the first correspondence, ROC was told the conference would be about the Youths of IMRARC who are currently doing surveys and research which would be presented for the first time on Sexual Bullying and the Effects of Domestic Violence on the Children in Guyana. ROC was under the impression that this is how the conference would be structured, and that it would be youths speaking to youths. However, later, ROC was made aware that other young people would be making presentations from other groups across the Caribbean and the US and that this would only take place for half a day. The other half day would be devoted to a panel of ‘experts.’ Discovering changes in the nature, scope and participants for the conference only after decisions had been made became a routine feature. The fact that the organisers were in the US and ROC is in Guyana no doubt added to the difficulties.
We learnt through the publication in your newspaper that the scope of the conference is much more ambitious than we had been told and that the conference would be used as a launching pad to secure funding for other research projects. Since the conference has moved a long way from what we had originally understood we no longer wish to be identified with it, and we are withdrawing as a sponsor of this event. We were also unaware of the event being dedicated to the memory of the late Neesa Lalita Gopaul.
A detail to be corrected is that ROC was not formed by the Human Rights Commis-sion two [sic] years ago. ROC has been in existence for some fourteen years.
Yours faithfully,
Teshanna Cox
Coordinator
ROC
