A multi-sectoral approach to the myriad problems facing teenagers in Guyana is needed to ensure that they are properly equipped to assume eventual leadership of the country, according to First Lady Sandra Granger.
Mrs Granger was speaking on Friday last during a Stakeholders Symposium, which was held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre at Liliendaal for World Population Day, which is to be observed on July 11.
The First Lady noted that given the challenges faced by Guyanese youth, this year’s theme, “Investing in Teenage Girls,” has been expanded locally to also include teenage boys. “When teen girls are empowered and are given the tools to succeed, they become tools for positive change and the same goes for teenage boys,” she was quoted as saying in a Ministry of the Presidency press release on the event.
She said that it was reported by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) last year that Guyana has had a consistently high rate of youth unemployment since the year 2000. As a result, she noted that it is important that a well-defined strategy be implemented to ensure that teenagers have the opportunity to become viable citizens who will both contribute to and benefit from the country’s wealth and resources.
According to the release, Mrs Granger added that many young people are alienated, uneducated and undereducated and “adrift of cultural and spiritual moorings and values.” As a result, she noted that careful examination should be made of how teenagers are socialised so that holistic solutions can be developed to target the issues affecting them. “We must consider the social and economic environments in which they grow, the influences they are exposed to and the hardships and challenges they face,” she said.
It is against this background that she argued that investments must begin through support for their families and the communities in which they live. She added that municipalities and regional and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils can become key partners in this process. Moreover, she said that non-governmental and faith-based organisations can partner with those bodies so as to provide guidance and support and become positive influences in the lives of young people.
Addressing education, the First Lady was reported as saying that the education system must cater to the needs of each child and help nurture them into their desired career paths. In order to do so, she added that schools must be equipped with facilities and adequately staffed so as to guide and help them. “Novel ways must be found to engage them and to light in them a fire for learning through access to information and community technologies, skills in sciences and arts, access to technical and vocational education, knowing that they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and share in good things life has to offer,” she said.
Speaking on the health sector, Mrs Granger stated that both health and family life education must play a role within the school system, communities and social organisations. “We, as a nation, would fail if investment isn’t made in [the] health and well-being of our young people, who are at a difficult period of their development,” she said.
Thus, she urged that adults, educators and health sector professionals need to set aside personal views and provide information teens need about sexual and reproductive health and teach them to protect themselves from Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
Mrs Granger, the release said, also reiterated that sexual violence remains underreported and under-prosecuted. For the period 2011 to March, 2015, she noted that the reported cases of sexual violence against children amounted to 1,145, with the ‘A’, ‘C’ and ‘F’ Divisions of the Guyana Police Force hosting the highest number of cases.
She added that there are also reports of high incidences of rape, incest and trafficking in rural and hinterland areas.
As a result, she said systems must be put in place to prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law and to provide counselling and support to victims’ families. She said too that community members also need to be aware of and become proactive in dealing with sexual violence against children.
The First Lady also spoke on crime and the release said that she highlighted that a lack of education and unemployment in addition to the lure of quick and easy money often lead some young people to crime. She also acknowledged that there are myriad factors leading teenagers into criminal activity, including the desire to have money, survival, popularity, and peer pressure. She noted, however, that it is admirable that the police force has been engaging more and more with the young people in the communities in which they serve by encouraging participation in sport and other activities.
The event, which was hosted by the ministries of Social Protection and Social Cohesion in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), also featured remarks from government ministers, who echoed the First Lady’s sentiments in encouraging a multi-sectoral approach to tackling the issues affecting young people in the country.
Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton, according to the statement, said that considering health-related issues, such as the lack of legislation for the provision of reproductive health services to teens, the lack of a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health curriculum in schools, and issues such as poverty and early sexual activity, strong leadership across the board is needed so that the country can champion the challenges faced by teenagers from social, religious, legislative and cultural perspectives.
Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence was reported as saying during her remarks that teens are in urgent need of help and that efforts should be made so as to provide them with the help they need. She stated that her ministry has made several investments to help tackle the issues affecting youth.
“The Ministry of Social Protection bears the responsibility of providing the socio-financial network to cushion vulnerable families and by extension, teenagers, who are part of them,” she said. One such investment is the establishment of the Gender Unit within the Ministry, which conducts public sensitisation on gender issues as well as provides counselling for young people. She also alluded to initiatives such as social assistance, vouchers and power loan agreements and grants that help single-parents get into business.
Lawrence also reported that a number of non-violent convicts in their late teens and early twenties, who had been pardoned by President David Granger last year, are now involved in a rehabilitation programme run by the Probation Department within the Ministry. Later, she said, they will be assisted with skills through the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency after being taught skills through the rehabilitation programme.
The release said the symposium also featured presentations from teenage mothers who are supported by Women Across Differences (WAD) and who shared, in addition to their struggles, sentiments of gratitude to the First Lady and President Granger for providing sponsorship for the girls to complete examinations to obtain Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) subjects.
