First Lady, Sandra Granger, yesterday encouraged 25 graduates of the Comprehensive Empowerment Programme for Adolescent Mothers (CEPAM), to continue on their path to success while offering her support through several improvement programmes under her stewardship, in addition to those available through the State.
According to a release from the Ministry of the Presidency, at the graduation ceremony, which was hosted in the Baridi Benab at State House, Mrs. Granger told the participants gathered that, “There is always a link to get you to where you want to go… If you want to go back to school, the Ministry of Education now has a policy to get you there. If you want to continue your education without going to school, there are other means through which you can do it, my Office coordinates workshops in Information [and] Communication Technology (ICT); we have child care, senior care and Success in Business workshops. There is always someone at your back and at your side”.
In her feature address at the ceremony, United Nations Resident Co-ordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Mikiko Tanaka noted that while adolescent mothers and their children may face many risks, the Government of Guyana has shown a considerable amount of effort to reduce same and help these young families.
“The Government’s effort to invest in adolescent mothers is evident with the drafting of the national policy for the reintegration of adolescent mothers into the formal school system … this will ultimately help to reduce the amount of pregnancy among school aged girls and increase the [number] of adolescent girls who re-enter the formal school system to complete their secondary education,” Tanaka said.
CEPAM, the release said, is an initiative organised by Women Across Differences (WAD), where the First Lady serves as patron, in collaboration with Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited. During the year-long programme, participants are given psychosocial support while being taught entrepreneurship skills and other subject areas. To date, a total of 570 teenage mothers have graduated from the programme since it started 10 years ago, the release said.
