Vulnerability of women in today’s society, whether due to a lack of education or a job, often makes them victims of abuse, and worse yet, may lead to their deaths at the hands of their spouses.This led to the conception of the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute (GWLI).The Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute, a department within the Ministry of Labour, Human Servicesand Social Security, located in Cove and John on the East Coast Demerara, was established on December 6, 1997 to hon-
our the Guyana government’s commit-ment to improving the status of women in Guyana. The Institute is housed in a three storey, wooden, colonial styled building with modern facilities and sleeping accommodation for 50 in-house participants. The institute is a non-profit organi-sation that is managed by a coordina-tor, a small staff and a team of facilitators from all regions of Guyana. It offers gender sensitive education un-der the themes: “Capacity Building for Leadership Enhancement” and “SkillTraining for Economic Empowerment”. The resources include manuals and handouts provided free of cost to all beneficiaries, whether the training programme is residential or outreach. Major funding is provided from govern-ment’s budget through the ministry of labour, human services and social security, and periodically from international and local donor agencies.In September this year, the pro-gramme, which offers courses in sewing, garment construction and fabric design-ing, food preparation and catering, driv-ing and salesmanship, was launched under the theme “Building Capacity for Skills Advancement”. Though acquiring a skill does not mean instant wealth, women who are trained are in a better position to make positive changes in their lives and that of their children, while at the same time engaging in income generating activi-ties. GWLI seeks, through its programmesand activities, to increase the number of women equipped to participate at all levels of decision-making, with special focus on the local level. The programmes also encourage the understanding of “gender awareness” and gender equali-ty and equity within the consciousness and practices of Guyanese women and men, increase leadership and gender awareness and capacity building of lo-cal, community-level women and men who are directly involved in advancing the abilities and increasing the opportu-nities of women across Guyana, among others. The institute realizes that it cannot do it all, so it has continuously collabo-rated with the Women’s Affairs Bureau, and the National Documentation and Resource Centre for Gender and Development to plan and execute its programmes. The labour, human servic-es and social security ministry provides the institute with human and financial resources to execute its mandate effec-tively. Training coursesIn order for women to be empowered to become leaders, they must be trained and possess the skills to take on such a role. As such, the institution offers cours-es such as ‘Understanding the Self’ de-signed to help each participant to gain a richer understanding of herself through her life’s experiences. Participants are helped to recognize how they feel and think about themselves, as this will af-fect the quality of life they lead. The ‘Understanding Leadership’ course targets participants who have background knowledge of managementand have been or are now carrying out managerial functions as home-makers, group leaders, community leaders or su-pervisors. The ‘Community Development’ course is designed to help students rec-ognize and understand their responsi-bilities as leaders in the communities, and promote community development.Participants will be educated on types of communities, dimensions of commu-nities, functions of community practitio-ners, benefits of development for the in-dividual and the community.Women must also understand soci-ety and the roles they must play to be effective leaders. The institution offers the ‘Gender and Development’ course, which enables participants to differenti-ate between sex and gender, and to un-derstand the process of gender socializa-tion and its impact on women and men. It also examines the concepts and ideas influencing gender behaviours, and the mechanisms employed by agencies topromote gender equity.With the ‘Effective Communication Skills’ course, emphasis will be placed on effective public speaking, feedback mechanism, note taking and listening skills. ‘Cultivating Healthy Lifestyles’ course is designed to increase awareness of adopting a healthy lifestyle. Among broad themes that will be discussed are personal hy-giene, nutrition, exercise, diet, sexually transmitted diseases, menstrual cycle and drug abuse. The course will enable participants to develop a sense of con-sciousness in caring for their bodies. The ‘Image Building and Etiquette’course is intended to change attitudes and behaviours and improve skills that are necessary for the development of knowledge relating to life. Some of the themes include courtesy rules, deport-ment and good grooming, personal de-velopment.The objectives of the ‘History of the Women’s Movement’ course are to give the women an overall appreciation of significant events and important mo-ments in Guyanese history. It also ex-amines the role women played in the de-velopment of our country, the Caribbean and further abroad.
The women are also given courses in Effective Parenting Skills, Domestic Violence, Counter-Trafficking in Persons, Gender and Local Government,
and Entrepreneurial Skills.All women and girls interested in empowering themselves can apply tothe institution, but they must be sixteen years and older and have a sound pri-mary or secondary education. Students will be graded on attendance, participation in classes, proj-ects and course exercises, group and/or, home-work, where all work assigned by the facilitator must be completed. These requirements ensure wom-en are disciplined and equipped to be-come leaders, as the institution’s vision
is to continuously educate and train girls and women to become personal leaders within their families and private lives, in communities, and as public leaders with-in the larger political and policy-makingareas in Guyanese society. (Taken from-
Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
