By Joel Vogt
An Onderneeming, La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara man is determined to empower every youth living in his community through his leadership and skills building programme.
Denzel Carlisle St. Hill, a 20-year-old Councilor at the Malgre Tout/Meer Zorgen Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and Co-founder of One Nation Youth Movement (ONYM) believes that he has what it takes to make a difference in the lives of young people living in his community.
The International Relations student at the University of Guyana said ONYM which is co-founded by Alex Stephen, was birthed out of the need for young people to become empowered and have access to resources and skills.
ONYM which was previously called Rising Youth Organisaton, was established on January 14, 2016.
“Aside from my passion for youth development, the group was birthed out of frustration, honestly speaking. Youths in my community were never given the opportunity to become leaders and to gain knowledge and skills that would benefit them in the world of work,” St. Hill told Village Voice Guyana.
The former West Demerara Secondary School student said the aim of ONYM is to promote development and empower young people in an inclusive society, through education, advancement, health, awareness, sport and community development. The Movement started with five members but now has 60 members.
In May 2018, ONYM joined the then Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Youth and many of its members, particularly those in the Parfaite Harmonie community benefited from skills training which St. Hill considers to be leadership exposure.
“The training took a while because the members were from various backgrounds and they had to break in and break away from the negative lifestyle they had possessed. I got help in that area from the local churches and our Regional Youth worker, Ms. Daniela Darbarrie and under two years from commencement, we saw a change in behaviours,” he said.
ONYM also collaborated with the Guyana National Youth Council in 2018 as a partner organization, African People Movement, Youth LEAD, One World organization and ACSEAL Caribbean.
Currently, efforts are being made to meet with the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, Jnr. and other Government agencies and departments to see how best support can be provided to young people.
“The meeting is a means to strengthen ties… [we] also plan to approach the Sports Commission to work with our young men in the area of sports, and the Ministry of Human Services to start a sewing program and night school for school drop outs or those who were forced to discontinue their secondary education,” the young man revealed.
Though St. Hill has plans for ONYM and the youth who are part of his programme, his efforts are not without challenges. He told Village Voice Guyana that access to finance is a major challenge.
“Presently we are engaged with financial donors, apart from that, we have fundraisers. One of our main contributors to our income is the Miss Parfaite Harmonie Pageant and Village Day,” the youngster said noting that he is grateful to all financial donors which include his family, workmates, Dave Singh of Banks DIH Limited and many others.
The group had planned several fundraising activities this year but due to the effect of the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), those activities, which included a village day, pageant, cake sale and a walk, were all cancelled.
Giving back
St. Hill said his organisation will work as best it could to enrich the lives of youth in and around his community. He said community service is important and ONYM will work continuously to develop La Parfaite Harmonie.
“We had partnered with a local church to launch a career day for young people who have dropped out of school and are unemployed,” he said noting that ONYM’s board is planning a Christmas hamper distribution exercise along with a toy drive in December.
The ONYM co-founder plans to have an office established and outfitted with internet and computers so that residents of his community who do not have access to the internet could use the office as an internet hub for research.
He is urging persons 15 years and older to become a member of ONYM. Application forms can be found on the organisation’s Facebook page One Nation Youth Movement or interested persons can send make contact by sending an email to onym.guyana@gmail.com.
