DPI, GUYANA, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Greater emphasis will be placed on the development of Guyana’s youth population in 2018. This is according to Director of Youth, Melissa Carmichael-Haynes who said this will be realised through a more proactive youth department that will ensure all necessary stakeholders play their role in the achieving this objective.

Melissa Carmichael-Haynes, Director of Youth.

During an interview with the Department of Public Information(DPI), the Youth Director emphasised that this year her department wants to ensure it works “with all agencies and ministries as it relates to the development of our young people because we all know youth work cannot be done with just one ministry or one agency. This year we want to foster stronger partnerships,” Carmichael-Haynes said.

According to Carmichael-Haynes, aside from building alliances, there will be increased emphasis on social issues affecting young people, entrepreneurship, literacy and numeracy.

The idea behind this move by the Youth Department, the Youth Director said is to have “young people and those unattached youth be a part of the vocational skills opportunities that are presented from the Youth Department”.

Carmichael-Haynes further added that “in many communities we find that a number of young people have not been able to acquire their full five subjects at CXC to move forward, so what we do through the literacy and numeracy programme, offered by the Department of Youth, is give them the opportunity to be able to complete their education”.

The Youth Director also highlighted that the Department will be data-driven – meaning information derived from surveys conducted in communities countrywide will be utilised to effectively address the needs of youths.

During the debates of the 2018 National Budget, Minister of Social Cohesion (MoSC) with responsibility for Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. George Norton pointed out that youth empowerment is critical since they are the agents of change and the future success and growth of Guyana depends on how well equipped the youth population is to handle emerging and imminent challenges.

With that, over $1B will be invested in 2018 for the development and empowerment of youths countrywide.

 

By: Isaiah Braithwaite

 

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/142936155@N03/

http://gina.gov.gy/youth-department-to-be-more-proactive/