GEPAN’s Support Education Campaign (SEC) 2017 kicked off earlier today, July 27, in Albouystown, Georgetown, Guyana.

SEC was launched in 2016 as an initiative to assist modest families from primarily rural communities, with alleviating back-to-school expenses. This year, beneficiaries include communities from Essequibo, East Coast Demerara and Georgetown. Packages include backpacks, notebooks, geometry sets, water bottles, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and rulers.

Today’s beneficiaries hail from Albouystown, a community which lies on the outskirts of Georgetown. Albouystown is often described as a depressed community due to unemployment, drug abuse, teenage pregnancies and other social ills. The decision to intervene in the community was made after observing that orphans and other children with insufficient financial support, drop out of school or do not attend classes regularly. As a result, many can be seen roaming the streets and engaging in unsupervised activities.

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Above: Gepan members Atika Stephens and Anna Campbell-Persaud (once a child of Albouystown!)  in company of  Georgetown Municipality Councillor Malcolm Ferreira. 

 Councillor for Constituency 10 Albouystown/Charlestown, Malcolm Ferreira, welcomed our team and discussed  some of the issues affecting his community. Among setbacks affecting development, he listed children welfare, unemployment, security. A few nurses present at the event also expressed their concerns over teenage pregnancies affecting girls as young as 13.

Ferreira, other community leaders and local businesses have been pooling resources to assist in uplifting the community through for example, youth projects. However, there is yet much room for improving life for residents in the community.

It is GEPAN’s belief that education and capacity building is key to empowering vulnerable populations, through initiatives engaging multi-stakeholder participation. For this reason, GEPAN will continue to look to Albouystown for continued collaboration and assist in community initiatives where possible.

This initiative was made possible by the generosity of local donors and the private sector!

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Children inspecting packages!

 

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Jewels of Albouystown!

 

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A light moment with #teamgepan !

SEC 2017 LIST FLYER

Find out more about GEPAN here!

 

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