Thirty youths from across Guyana are currently part of a three-month training programme to become community leaders and during a simple opening ceremony yesterday were urged to use the knowledge they would gain to impact positively on the lives of others.
The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Youth Empowerment, Inclusion and Reconciliation Project training session is being held at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, High Street. The sessions will be conducted on Fridays and Saturdays.
The participants, drawn from six regions, were chosen after they would have responded to an advertisement in the newspapers. The life of the project under which this training session falls ends in March next year.
Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud, in the feature address, stressed to the participants that they are positioned to add to “your armoury of leadership skills, your people skills, your strategies in interacting and engaging your fellow mankind in your respective communities.”
Persaud noted that the training will enhance growth and development and as such each participant will be able to influence change in other youths.
He said the UNDP office has always played a major role in assisting Guyana in implementing its developmental agenda, particularly in the area of capacity building, empowerment, reconciliation and conflict resolution.
While noting that the government is grateful for the timely and consistent interventions being made by UNDP, he said that young people have the golden opportunity to fashion society.
He urged the participants to see themselves as “change agents.”
Michelle Baird a representative of the Tiara’s Academy Consultancy explained that her agency was tasked with assisting in the developing and delivering seven training modules to 30 youth between ages 18 and 25 from regions two, three, four, five, six and ten.
She said the primary objective is to increase and accurately dispense knowledge of the country’s governance structure and its local government challenges; transformative leadership and related skills; advocacy and participation in policy making; project development and implementation; conflict transformation and fostering peace; understanding human rights and strategies in community development.
According to Baird, the designed project seeks to ensure that participants who have received training, take back knowledge to their communities thereby “creating a ripple effect of the imparted knowledge”.
UNDP representatives and Project Coordinator Vickram Bharrat were among those present.
