Dear Editor,
The development of a nation is dependent on those placed in authority to guide the process of ensuring strong efficient institutions that respond positively to the needs of the masses. Placing an accountant or electrical engineer to function as a professional social worker is a recipe for disaster, just as it would be to place a professional social worker to function as an electrical engineer. We as a nation must bring an end to this trend of placing square pegs in round holes if we are going to realize Guyana as a developed nation in our lifetime.
In 1973 at the Treaty of Chaguaramas it was observed that there would be an explosion of the youth population in the Caribbean community by the year 2000. An agreement was therefore reached to train social workers who would work with our youths to promote national development all across the Caribbean and in Canada, since the Commonwealth Secretariat came on board and financed the project.
At the end of their training these youth social workers were assigned to communities developing youth clubs and sports associations, promoting youth skills training programmes and sports and cultural programmes. Their work was evident in our dominance in sports in the Caribbean and the establishment of the Guymine Games, Guystac Games, Public Service Games amd Inter-estate Games, and they also played a major role in the establishment of the Guyana National Service, the legacy of the vision of our leaders. While this was happening our nation enjoyed relative peace as our young people were gainfully employed and otherwise positively occupied in our communities.
I must remind the nation of our dynamic Youth Services Unit under the guidance of our much loved and esteemed Director of Youth, Lynette Seabra. She worked beyond the call of duty and received tremendous support from Youth Workers employed in the unit who were trained by the Commonwealth Youth Programme.
When the government changed in 1992 the Youth Service Unit and the Commonwealth Youth Programme were downplayed or watered down. In 1993 twenty youth workers from Guyana were heading to the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus in Trinidad to pursue the Diploma in Youth and Development run by the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre. This part of the programme was to last two months, and the government at the time was asked to give us a stipend of US$5 per day, while the Commonwealth Caribbean Centre paid for our airfare, meals and accommodation. The government bluntly refused to assist us; I was one of the 20 member team representing Guyana, and I called Prime Minister Samuel Hinds from Trinidad appealing to his good judgement to make this pocket money available. I was bluntly informed that the debt burden that the previous government left did not allow us to receive that pocket money. We were embarrassed by our government, since as we interacted with our fellow participants from the other Caribbean territories and Canada we were all without that pocket money to deal with emergencies.
Youth social workers were neglected by this new government which came to power in 1992, and many migrated to work in the Caribbean, North America and the United Kingdom. Those of us who stayed and pursued the degree in Social Work at the University of Guyana were disregarded and poorly paid, disrespected and placed to do jobs that we were not professionally trained for, something which remains very much the same today.
In the year 2000 after I completed a Florida Gulf Coast University-University of Guyana Student Exchange Programme in Florida USA that lasted eight weeks, and during which I engaged in social work field study, on my return to Guyana I was dismissed from my job as an HIV/AIDS Counsellor at the Georgetown Public Hospital, even though I had applied for no pay leave to pursue this study which would have benefited the social policy and programmes here at home.
The actions of the previous government discriminating against professional social workers have affected our youths tremendously. Let us return to the communities with our social workers, coaches, sports organizers, skills training officers, etc. The time has come for us to build training centres in the villages to train youths in various skills; we have to help the communities to help themselves. Undergraduates from the university are incapable of dealing fully effectively with the problems that confront our youths in the villages that have been neglected by the previous regimes. The Community Development Department needs trained experienced social workers to bring about positive changes in villages through youth empowerment.
I must mention that the youth commissioners in Barbados are those who are holders of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Diploma in Youth and Development, and they continue to have a dynamic youth programme on that island. There are many of us here who were trained over the years, and I therefore appeal to this government to put us to work if they seriously need a progressive youth movement for national development. The time for this is right now; to wait may be too late.
I must commend the Ministry of Education Youth Department for engaging young people in their planned leadership development seminars and workshops, but this is no substitute for employing those trained youth leaders whose training covered over three years under the guidance of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Director, Dr Ivan Henry, and his dynamic staff to complete the Diploma in Youth and Development. This inspired many of us here in Guyana to pursue the Bachelors of Social Work Degree at the University of Guyana.
A vibrant Guyana Professional Social Workers Association collaborating with the government institutions responsible for youth and development will bring about positive changes amongst young people in our communities.
Yours faithfully,
Ras Aaron Blackman
