President appeals for national support to tackle problems facing boys, men

Last Updated on Saturday, 29 October 2022, 9:43 by Denis Chabrol

President Irfaan Ali  Friday issued a stirring appeal for broad-based national support to address deep-seated problems facing boys and men so that they could grasp education and job opportunities while staying away from trouble such as committing violence against women and children.

“This is not the time for us to point fingers. This the time for us to come together to  believe in each other and to realise that we can only do this as a collective,” he said.

Except for national unity on border controversies with neighbouring Venezuela and Suriname, governing and opposition parties rarely agree on anything else.

He issued the call at the launch of his 1,000-man Men On Mission (MOM) initiative being led by Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force Brigadier Godfrey Bess and Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken.  “We shall work to make our males better at being good boys, responsible youths and responsible men in our society,” Brigadier Bess said.

The President said the regional administrative systems in the areas of the Joint Services, health, education and religion would be “unleashed” to address a range of problems. He said MOM is aimed at creating a network of support for men to resolve problems and close gaps in employment and education due to “our own inaction”, “neglect” and “selfish ways” of not being part of family and community development.

Touching on the issue of unemployment, the President said every effort would be made to get them gainfully employed but he noted much depended on their personal will. “The men, who are wandering around, we have to bring you back into the workforce. You have to be ready and willing to be retrained and retooled,” he said. Dr Ali said men were “loitering” while Guyana is suffering from a “labour shortage”. “Men On Mission will gather you into the flock and bring you back to the reality that you must be reintegrated back into the society,” he said.

Dr Ali said there was a lot of space for men to take up jobs in the public sector where there are 7,280 males and 19,770 females. “Our females are at the forefront of public service, they are at the forefront of policymaking. This does not mean that the responsibility of shouldering the responsibility of public service resides solely with women,” he said. He said MOM would train people to remove the stigma linked to certain jobs that are traditionally the preserve of men and women.

The President backed up his concerns with figures that show that fewer men have enrolled at the University of Guyana. He said between 2017 and 2022, 24 to 36 percent or 16,294 of the more than 45,000 students, who signed up to pursue tertiary education there, were men. “The alarm bells are sounding loud and we are beginning to feel the effect of this,” he added. Dr Ali said those figures show that “something is going wrong.”  He said while government was trying to address the school-dropout rate, statistics reveal that more boys drop out from nursery to secondary levels.

Chief-of-Staff Bess said Guyana needs empowered, enlightened and responsible men are needed for Guyana’s development rather than the high school dropout rate among boys. “It is obvious of the crisis that we are in as a country and the timeliness, urgency and importance of the President’s initiative,” he said.

Violence against women was identified as a major scourge that MOM would aim to tackle and lead the charge in transforming Guyanese minds and hearts rather than only on wealth, infrastructural development and beautification.  “Men On Mission will be the foundation to remove violence against women and children. This is not the responsibility for women. This is the responsibility for us to work with each other. We must make the change, we must drive the change, we must lead the movement of respect, we must lead the movement of pride,” he said.

Though the project is aimed at galvanising men to provide long-term support to boys and adult males through coaching, mentoring and motivation to rebuild a positive approach to education, the President hailed the contributions of women to the growth and development of males. “I want to celebrate all the women of this beautiful country who have shouldered much more responsibility and burden than they should have shouldered, who continue to contribute significantly,” he said, adding that women carry out laborious tasks, work and study, and take care of children. On the contrary, he lamented the unsatisfactory role and condition of men by failing to execute their responsibilities. “We, as men, we have dropped the ball in communities and families and society. Today, it is about us picking up back that ball and supporting the women and ensuring that they are given that equal shoulder to take the burden and responsibility of creating an equal nation,” he said.

He said the Pan American Health Organisation has recorded that the life expectancy of men in Guyana is 65 years due to their lifestyles that lead to avoidable non-communicable diseases.

In the area of deviant behaviour, he pointed to men being recorded as the bigger traffic violators and fatalities as well committing suicides due to “serious mental health problems” due to insecurity, lack of confidence, no role models and no role models.