Published 29 April, 2021
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
BOYS MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED AT THE CAYON HIGH SCHOOL
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 29, 2021 (SKNIS): The Boys Mentorship Programme was officially launched at the Cayon High School under the theme “Boys Under Construction” on April 29, 2021.
At the launching ceremony, held at the school, Community Development Officer, Haniff Charles, said that it is quite a fitting theme as the programme intends to equip the young men with the necessary tools for them to build a well-rounded and transformed society, which is desired.
He added that the programme will have a positive effect on the young men by deterring antisocial behaviour and producing fine quality young men.
Minister of Community Development, the Honourable Eugene Hamilton, urged the young men to always strive to be better versions of themselves every day.
“There is nothing noble in waking up in the morning and feeling that you are superior to your fellow man,” he said. “When you wake up in the morning you must think about being superior to your former self. When you wake up in the morning, start thinking that ‘I have to be superior to my former self’, that is what makes you noble.”
Minister Hamilton said that when someone feels superior to their fellow man, they become selfish. However, if they feel superior to their former self they will strive to do the things they know are better, which will improve the quality of their own lives and the lives of others.
The Minister added that persons already know the difference between right and wrong, without someone teaching it to them.
“We know what’s right and we know what’s wrong. Nobody has to tell you it is right to get to school early, you know it’s right not to fight in school, but yet we do,” he said. “Those are the things you have to try to be better at every day, that is, superior today than you were yesterday. If yesterday you were a fighter in school, today you must try not to fight in school. If yesterday you were late for school, you must try not to be late for school. That is what makes you a better person than you were yesterday.”
Minister Hamilton said that the Boys Mentorship Programme was established to bring boys to the reality that women are now doing better than them. He noted that women have taken positions that were once male-dominated. For example, in schools the majority of teachers are females. The Minister said that while students need a motherly figure in the school, a fatherly figure is also needed.
“You can’t ignore what a father figure can do in helping to shape the lives of our boys,” he said. “With that rise of women, our boys seemed to have declined or have deviated. Some are now deviant and criminals. So, we have to construct or reconstruct. We have to redo what we have been doing so that men can take their equal place in our society with women.”
He continued, “I encourage all boys to at least put the time in with those who might be your direct mentors and indirect mentors as well, doing good not bad. …Since you can differentiate right from wrong, I expect as you journey through life you will continue to do what’s good and what’s right.”
