Living Green - PYAGUY Youths

liVinG Green PyaGuy youThs

The Professional Youth Alliance Guyana (PYAGuy) is a non-profit organization that aims to empower young people by providing them with life skills and resources to help them shape their future. PYAGuy engages young professionals and helps them improve their natural abilities and talents so that they can actively contribute to their communities as a way of giving back.

PYAGUY’s mission is to teach its members new skills so they can manage and support community projects including back-to-school drives to encourage youth to attend school, reading programs to improve literacy, and afterschool programs to help at-risk adolescents achieve their academic goals. The organization, which is based in Georgetown, has identified the outlying low-income areas of Sophia and Lodge where its resources can have the biggest impact. They usually work on programs that help young people aged 10 to 16, their parents, young women, young professionals, and the elderly.

LIVING GREEN BY GROWING GREENS

Over the course of eighteen months, PYAGuy managed an afterschool program which comprised home work assistance, literacy and numeracy, arts and crafts, and gardening as key activities remotely. Since the project’s inception in two low-income areas (Lodge and Sophia), the activities have centered on aiding households in sustaining themselves through gardening while reducing trash. Students were trained to repurpose household waste items from the beginning. These skills came in handy later when students were evaluating the materials in their houses and deciding how to apply creativity to plan, develop, and maintain their own kitchen gardens.

These young people were resilient and didn’t mind getting their hands dirty. These kids have grit, just like the soil under their fingernails. They separated biodegradable trash from non-biodegradable waste and began working on their own compost. They learned about garden helpers and pests while preparing and were given instructions on how to deal with each. Particularly during the pandemic, the youths were confronted with new challenges that necessitated a change in approach because they were no longer physically present at sessions. It’s undeniably impressive that, given the circumstances, these young people were more engaged than ever before; much like the seed, their potential grew as well.

In order to adapt to changing needs, funds were set aside to assist at least twenty families in starting and maintaining their own kitchen gardens. This goal included providing participating families with a gardening kit that included gardening tools, seeds, and seedlings.

After students from various families received their kits, they were frequently instructed via zoom and WhatsApp call, as well as a home-made YouTube video that explained the composting process.

They began planting cash crops such as pak choi, calaloo, okra, bora, and others, with weekly monitoring over two six-week batches. They were encouraged to arrange and even decorate their garden using their arts and crafts skills to upcycle and recycle waste as they did so. Several young people expressed surprise that items that would normally end up in their trash could be used to nourish their plants or as plant pots, decoration, or even tools in their gardens. The experience brought joy in a variety of ways and exemplifies an excellent method of supporting families during the pandemic.

PYAGUY had exceeded their goal by the end of the program, with thirty-five participating families and a total of forty-one youths working to create their own kitchen garden! Many parents joined in congratulating the youths on their hard work and success in living green by growing greens.

BY DARYLL GOODCHILD -PYAGUY SECRETARY AND EON STEPHENS-USAID/CSWC AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM MANAGER