The East Bank department of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), will be rolling out its ‘Teen Pregnancy Prevention’ and ‘Better Parenting Skills’ programmes to the indigenous community of St. Cuthbert’s Mission on the Mahaica River, over the coming weekend.
The CCPA East Bank Department deals with families from Meadow Bank, East Bank Demerara to Loo Creek on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, as stated in a Ministry of Social Protection (MoSP) release.
Supervisor for the East Bank department of CCPA, Milton Smith, said the main aim of the programme is to empower and equip young people with the necessary knowledge and information to prevent them from engaging in sexual activity at an early age.
“The programme will see discussions on topics including suicide, peer pressure, drug addiction and it will empower the teenagers about their reproductive organs and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) with the intention of encouraging them to postpone sexual activities which can lead to pregnancies or HIV,” Smith explained.
With regard to the ‘Better Parenting Skills’ programme, the MoSP informed that it deals with issues such as understanding the psychological development of children as well as parents. It also highlights factors that lead children’s behaviour. Smith pointed out that the department’s plan is to take a holistic approach and not only engage teenagers, but also the entire family.
“CCPA has a responsibility to ensure that the welfare and wellbeing of children are taken care of and to ensure that the parents play an active role in the lives of children. So, we don’t want to work with teenagers alone but we also want to work with parents. Because you can empower them [teenagers] but if you don’t empower their parents then we’re back at square one. So we will work with our indigenous families in St. Cuthbert’s Mission to teach them new methods and alternative ways of dealing with children and teenagers.”
The CCPA supervisor declared that the department is on a mission to take the programmes to various communities since many residents have complained of challenges in attending the sessions when they are held outside of their communities.
“When we keep one big session, some persons complained of not having money to attend, so we are trying our best to keep the sessions right in their communities. During that process we collaborate with the police group in the community which also has a session with the children. We always collaborate with our partners including the Guyana Police Force, Blossom Incorporated, ChildLink, Youth Challenge Guyana and the probation department to execute our programmes,” Smith pointed out.
It was also disclosed that the ‘Better Parenting Skills’ programme was recently completed in the Mocha community where approximately 45 parents from the community attended and received their certificates of participation. Timehri, Kaneville and Agricola will soon benefit from the programme.
Community Action Groups have been launched in Agricola, Yarrowkabra, Timehri, and one is slated for St. Cuthbert’s Mission. A Youth Day Camp is also in the pipeline for the department. So far for this year, the department has completed over 50 per cent of its work programme and is making every effort to complete the remainder soon.