Motto: Caring for Humanity
Mission
To make a positive contribution to the development of children and youth through access to health, economic and social support necessary for improved quality of life.
Purpose
The main purpose of the organization is to provide an opportunity for youth to develop their capacity to work towards the development of the health and social sectors.
Vision
To be the premier health, social and economic, non governmental, youth organization in Guyana that provides quality and holistic support to address the developmental needs of an individual between the ages of 8 – 35.
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Background
In August of 1996, the Ministry of Health of Guyana brought together students who were attached to departments of the Ministry of Health as part of the government’s work study summer internship program. The meeting was facilitated by Guyana’s then Minister of Health, Gail Teixeira who challenged the students to find ways to contribute to improving the health sector. The group of students continued to meet for a few weeks and the idea of starting a youth voluntary support organization attached to the health sector emerged.
On December 14, 1996, Volunteer Youth Corps (VYC) was launched. VYC was launched against a backdrop of deteriorating care in the health sector and in particular at Guyana’s primary health care institution – Georgetown Hospital. VYC started out as a group of youth going to Georgetown Hospital providing psychosocial support to people hospitalized mainly from low income or middle-income families. VYC’s work at the time was hailed as a major youth response to a very obvious problem. As a result of this, and careful planning, the organization was very successful at not only attracting young people into volunteer work in an environment (hospital) very few young people will want to spend their free time, but also, attracting resources to do the work, because of ‘goodwill’ accumulation over time.
This success is also in part attributable to the fact that VYC did not restrict itself to the provision of auxiliary support to the health sector, but also, because the organization was responsive to the fact that, there are root causes to ill health. VYC worked assiduously to discover those root causes and developed initiatives in response. One of the areas of primary involvement and intervention is “HIV/AIDS” and the fact that the number of HIV positive youth was increasing rapidly.
Since it inauguration in 1996, Volunteer Youth Corps (VYC) has transformed from a group of youth lending support to Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation to an organization engaging, reshaping and empowering lives of both young and old alike; offering aid where ever it might be needed. All while still conscious of its responsibility to its donors and the public of transparency in both its management and community practices.
Progrmmme Areas:
1. Micro-financing Training and Access to Small Loans – the VYC on a day-to-day basis trains young people who have excellent business ideas to develop those concepts. This training takes place at the VYC in eight principal areas with special emphasis in use of ICT such as computers and audiovisual aides. The end result is access to micro financing to set up these businesses and developing of websites for e-commerce. VYC has a revolving funds for young people trained to access loans to start their business.
2. The Volunteer Youth Corps implements the ‘Guyana Information Youth Project’ (GIYP) - a project which aims to provide young people between the ages of 17-30 with the information, skills and competencies necessary for building successful and sustainable small businesses through business development training. Additionally, GIYP attempts to provide trained entrepreneurs with support as long as needed to those entrepreneurs after training. The skills, knowledge and competences gained can be used in the expansion of small businesses with their eventual graduation into the formal economy using a formalize system of engagement with the private sector that builds on the developed and mutually beneficial business linkages between small venture and larger enterprises.
3. Youth Employment Networks - VYC as a youth NGO has been entrusted and charged with the responsibility of initiating and facilitating the local multi-sectoral YES Network in Guyana. The initiative, which is based in many countries around the world, seeks to foster collaboration of multiple stakeholders to take committed action to address Youth employment.
4. Big Brothers Big Sisters - Mentoring of many children and youth whom are vulnerable, at-risk and affected by HIV/AIDS in the formal school sector and private sector. Each child is matched with an adult and responsible role model who can gave support and guidance to bring out their fullest potential.
5. Training and Capacity Building of Community Based Groups– the organization in furtherance of its mandate provides training and capacity building to groups in several areas. These include: Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, Conflict Management and Peace Building, Business / Entrepreneurship, HIV/AIDS among others.
6. HIV/AIDS Awareness – the VYC on a day-to-day basis works with workplaces and community groups in Guyana to build their capacity to implement HIV/AIDS preventative education and behavioral change in the work environment. As a result various training sessions are held at the VYC’s secretariat for various levels of these organizations such as the senior staff, Peer educators, Social workers and other HIV/AIDS youth activists.
7. Telephone Counseling – the VYC provides a 12 hours Telephone counseling service to young people who are affected or infected by HIV/AIDS, young people who need guidance, young people who are at risk or in an abusive environment.
The VYC provide volunteers who work in two primary health care facilities alongside nurses and other medical practitioners providing social support to persons hospitalized.
8. Assistance for People Needing Medical Surgeries – one of the daily activities of the VYC is networking with hospitals and private sector agencies to put in place arrangements overseas for Guyanese to travel abroad for medical surgeries.
9. Outreach – Several outreach educational activities are done from time to time targeting young people in rural communities so as to educate them on ways of protecting themselves from various forms of illnesses. Also, VYC participates regularly in exhibitions across Guyana taking information to young people on their health and other aspects of their lives. The secretariat of the VYC serves as a centre for members of the wider community, NGOs and private sector companies to come and access free distribution on condoms.
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