Fresh off of enhancing the main visitors’ area of the Kaieteur National Park and providing life skills training in the indigenous village of Chenapou, Region Eight, the First Assembly of God Wortmanville’s youth group Nulli Secundus has been awarded for its service to communities across Guyana.
The group was among those honoured at the fifth annual National Youth Awards on Saturday night. They were awarded for their service in volunteerism. According to president of the group Martin Massiah, Nulli Secundus, which means second to none, comprises a group of young people focused on developing other youths spiritually, physically, economically and socially. Formed in 2007, the youth group currently has about 150 active members ranging from ages 13 to 35, who have been setting out on expeditions to indigenous villages across the country for the last four years.
“Every year, we have a signature expedition into the interior where we go to indigenous communities to educate or to develop different projects in the communities,” Massiah said.
Over the years, the group implemented various projects in Mahdia, Lethem, Annai, Paramakatoi and other communities.
This year, the group’s 12-day expedition took them to the Kaieteur National Park and Chenapou. The mission recorded the largest contingent of volunteers thus far. “We not only go to have fun but we also do a lot of work giving back to the communities. The areas that we were training in this year were life skills and cake decorating,” said Tiffany David, the vice president of the group.
David told Stabroek News that they were asked to do life skills training in Chenapou and covered areas such as self-awareness, resilience and coping, creative and critical thinking along with decision-making.
“This year’s community project was to enhance the ambiance of Kaieteur so we did a lot of trimming of trees, we were able to help clean the park itself, the main building…we also built bridges along the walkway at Kaieteur,” she added.
Other members of the group indicated that they were able to execute those projects with funds from various fundraising activities they held prior to the expedition. They also received assistance from some sponsors. David added that they were the first group to lend assistance to the Kaieteur National Park.
Marissa Maison, one of the group members, said that along with those projects, this year they also collaborated with the Office of Climate Change to bring awareness on global warming, mitigation, forestry and more to the communities of Chenapou and Mahdia. She recalled that the sessions in the communities were very interactive and they were able to make an impact on the young people in the villages.
“Another presentation that we did was on teenage pregnancy and substance abuse because what you would find is that in those villages, especially Mahdia and Chenapou, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse is quite prevalent,” said Imani McKenzie. McKenzie said that throughout the training programmes, they received amazing feedback from the residents and even the toshao of Chenapou.
David said that since its formation, the group has been engaging and assisting communities across the country.
