Dear Editor,
Recently I joined the fourth and first form students of the Berbice High School along with their teachers who held their first suicide awareness walk through the streets of New Amsterdam sensitizing the residents and especially young people about the issue of suicide.
I must commend them for taking this initiative and trying their best to prevent suicide, the rate of which is relatively high in Guyana, especially in Region 6.
A recent study shows that Guyana tops the Caribbean suicide rate and Berbice leads Guyana, with 67 suicide cases being reported. This is a huge number, especially among young people.
Speaking with the students of the Berbice High School, they were all upset about this, so they decided to plan their walk in an effort to help prevent the suicide rate from escalating even higher. “Hope and Pray, Suicide is not the way,” they chanted as they paraded the streets of New Amsterdam.
During their walk, residents in the area commended them for taking this initiative and also encouraged them to keep on doing what they were doing and to make a change in the society,
I am appealing to other schools and young people out there to come together and form themselves into groups, reach out to their community, their school and have them join in preventing suicide and even educating them about the causes which lead to suicide and ways in which they can help to stop it. I must once again express my appreciation to the Berbice High School students and teachers in their fight against suicide. Let us all join hands and say no to suicide and yes to life!
Yours faithfully,
Shazam Somwar
