Youth camps are great investments

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,
I see that our youths are really being catered for. A few days ago, I heard on radio the community call for quite a few Vacation Bible Schools all over the country. Currently, there are various kinds of camps for school youngsters. These camps are being run by the National Sports Commission. I wish I were a boy all over. No one can say that Guyana is not chartering new territory for its children.
It gets better now too, as I see that the Guyana Police Force’s annual Youth Camp is fully entrenched.
The first week of August is usually when a lot of extra lessons come to an end. So until August 12, plenty of children will again be benefiting from this camp. It is being run at the Pomona Secondary School, Essequibo Coast, and the venture is getting the full support of the Guyana Police Wives Association.
In fact, these ladies are the ones doing all the work.
This year, some 200 children between the ages of seven and 12 were selected from among youths who were involved in the force’s youth clubs and scout groups.
So, it is like a continuation and enhancement of their lives.
This year the theme is “Youths, leading our nation.” This is sending a great message at an early age.
About 67 per cent of our prison population are young people. They have been misled or maybe not even led at all. So with this camp, it is hoped that at least 200 will not be easily swayed into anything anti-social. Now is the time to invest, for if we save the children, we are saving the youths, and we are saving the adults – the chain must start at the very beginning.
I like these topics for the camp – craft work, educational talks, road safety, religious teaching, information technology, and games and then a great exhibition to showcase the skills learnt. This is how it used to be in the days of old – all camps ended with a grand presentation. During those days too, we used to honour our country in the Vacation Bible Schools.
I noticed that the police camp has that element of religion. The two – God and state, must co-exist.
I hope we all learn from this and I call for more organisations, government and others, to have these in-house camp sessions. They are not that costly, and they afford a lot to the adults too. They end up learning a lot.
Yours sincerely,
Josephine McAlmont

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