By Kizzy Coleman
The Nulli Secundus youth group, meaning “Second to None”, which has selflessly donated their services to Guyanese throughout the length and breadth of Guyana, is now being nationally recognised.
The group, which has been active since the year 2010 and was coordinated by Robert Lee, received a national award for their humanitarian work on Saturday last.
The now 100-member strong group emanated from the First Assembly of God Church and is funded largely through fundraisers and sponsors. The aim of Nulli Secundus is to create a sense of pride among young Guyanese in Guyana through the hosting of annual expeditions whereby the group visits various regions of Guyana, delivering help in areas such as spiritual, physical, economical as well as the social aspect of wellbeing and growth.
The Sunday Times Magazine sat down with a number of members of the group who talked about the journey thus far.
“It is an organisation which empowers young people who are the future of Guyana to develop national pride. So the first thing that comes to mind is to recognise and own Guyana instead of migrating. We are divided into different teams, we have a legal, science team, business, arts and engineering which are the focal point for most of the members that we have. So we do a lot of training and preparation, we do a lot of community outreaches because we have a lot of skills” Vice President of Nulli Secundus, Tiffany David shared.
Six expeditions were held thus far, the El Dorado expedition being the first in 2010 where a visit was paid to the Essequibo Coast.
“Our members who went on that was able to climb Samarock’s Peak, that’s part of the Kamuku Mountain Range, the tallest point of the mountain range. We planted the national flag as well as the Christian flag on there and we sung national songs and so on. We also painted the culverts in that area with high visibility colours because they were having frequent accidents at the culverts in Lethem, that’s something that we did as part of the community works there” David reflected.
In 2016, expedition Cinderalla was carried out in Region Eight where villagers were trained in hygiene, clothing and textile, education, business and awareness among other things.
“We also did community projects, we felt that Region Eight was the most beautiful part of Guyana and we felt like it was a forgotten part of Guyana that’s why we named that expedition Cinderella” David said.
In 2017, expedition Wapishana Wave saw the group visiting Aishalton and climbing the She Rock (South Rupununi).
Expedition Link Up in 2018 saw the group attempting to link Region Eight and Nine where visits were paid to Annai, Surama, and Orealla among other villages.
“We did training in Information Technology (IT) and cake decorating training. What we found in those villages is that some of them actually had equipment for IT, they had equipment for cake decorating that was donated to them but they were never trained in those areas, so we were able to train and help them to utilise a skill and based on the reports that we have received, some of those trained have since started their own businesses in cake decorating doing that for wedding and so on so we feel a sense of pride in being able to serve the people of those communities. We did training in steel pan as well because we actually took up our steel pan with us and what is very interesting is that they picked it up within minutes” David revealed.
2019 saw expedition Esprit de Corps, meaning pride and loyalty, among groups being carried out.
“We did training in two villages, Mahdia and Chenapou, training in cake decorating and life skill. In life skill we looked at self-awareness, decision making, resilience and coping with emotions, critical and creative thinking. We also had presentations on climate change as well as teenage pregnancy and substance abuse. We did community projects in Mahdia where we helped to complete a washroom area and at Kaieteur we helped them to build bridges and to clean the airstrip area and so forth…this year was the largest that we have ever had, a number of 42,”a member, Imani McKenzie, shared.
The Nulli Secundus members said that they feel a sense of pride for their achievement and for their work finally being recognised.
“The activities were planned, coordinated and executed by young people , it was amazing to see how capable young Guyanese are once given the opportunity, to be able to see Guyana in such a way, it was scenic, the air is different in every part of Guyana, it indeed built a sense of national pride and appreciation to know that Guyana is more than Georgetown, that Guyana is more than one or two groups of people, to interact with the different culture in the different villages, to be away from Wi-Fi and the internet for days to spend hours on the water, five hours at one point on the Potaro River, to sleep in hammocks and tents and boats, all of those are experiences that we wouldn’t trade for the world” another member, Joshua Griffith, shared.
When questioned about the national award, one member said “We are very excited but we didn’t expect this to happen, it is very exciting considering the amount of outreaches that we did and projects that we undertake, this is a well-deserved award.”.
