Last Sunday, Ithaca Village, West Coast Berbice, became the latest beneficiary of the Volunteer Apprenticeship Community Support (VACS) programme, with the installation of basketball backboards.
According to a press release, the Volunteer Apprenticeship Community Support programme is a creation of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) which continued its envisioned mandate of municipal advancement with the installation of high-quality Mega Slam branded basketball hoops in the West Berbice community of Ithaca.
According to the release the initiative, directly correlates and aligns with the Government of Guyana’s intended developmental sphere.
A cadre of officials, led by the architect of the enterprise, the Honourable Charles Ramson Jr, Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport, descended on the burgeoning facility along with Director of Youth, Steve Ninvalle, Suresh Singh, Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Kashif Muhammad, Commissioners of the National Sports Commission Dellon Davidson and Cristy Campbell and National Security Advisor, Captain Gerry Gouveia.
Rehabilitative works, which were aided following the welcomed involvement of the community’s populace, were immediately undertaken at the venue which encompassed the casting of the playing surface, reconstruction and painting of bleachers, painting of the washroom facilities as well as landscaping and clearing of the nearby drains.
Ithaca as the latest beneficiary of the programme which is yet to reach its pinnacle, is evidence and testament of the current administration’s emphasis on community empowerment, which is a fundamental tenet and important facet of social cohesion, stated the release.
The pledged, and eventual delivery of the basketball systems, is once again indicative of Minister Ramson Jr.,’s commitment not only to the development of Guyana’s sporting landscape, but the advancement of the nation’s human capital, which is its most important natural resource, the release added.
Sport is a catalyst for not only individual advancement but community progression, and initiatives akin to the Volunteer Apprenticeship Community Support programme, once allowed to foster, has the capacity to not only alter the local backdrop from a sporting standpoint, but a collective, and societal perspective.
This approach, and overall ideology of Minister Ramson Jr., is merely a byproduct, and derivative of the Government of Guyana’s objective in nurturing social cohesion in every sector, with sport being historically recognized on the international scene as a unifying force, and bridge amongst all creeds.
Minister Ramson Jr., and the Government of Guyana, is cognizant that social cohesion is the process of building common values, and communities, which enables the populace to be part of a fellowship, a common enterprise, and that they are members of a collective humanity.
This is intrinsically relevant more than ever, as the Government of Guyana cultivates its current platform of ‘One Guyana’, which is a direct representation, and a localized interpretation of Social Cohesion, in bid to foster solidarity and an overarching sense of belonging amongst all groups in society, the release ended.
