Coming October 2010: Minister Manickchand travels to Cambridge as our guest and honored speaker

Our final activity for the year takes place in October when Minister Manickchand travels to Cambridge as our guest and honored speaker at Lesley during Domestic Violence recognition month. During her visit Minister Manickchand will have the opportunity to meet with students and faculty and share her efforts in preventing violence against women and children in Guyana. She will observe how the arts can be included in changing societal practices and in healing.

We are excited that our initiative has gained such great momentum and support at its infancy. Our vision that we can create a template to change societal behavior, specifically violence against women and children and gender inequality, has attracted significant attention across the Guyanese diaspora. While the arts are being used in over 70 countries by various organizations to treat a range of social ills, nowhere has a template been created to replicate successful results. By creating a model program we seek to contribute to more equitable, peaceable and sustainable communities for women, children and families .

June 2010: 5 Guyanese social workers visit Cambridge

As part of its 2010 programming, MCF has invited 5 Guyanese social workers selected by the Ministry of Human Services and by Help & Shelter to participate in Lesley University’s Peaceable Schools & Communities Institute in Cambridge for 5 days in June. The Institute includes strategies to resolve conflicts and build peace. Director of the Peaceable Schools & Communities, Dr. Linda Brion-Miesels, will address the Guyanese group and their specific issues during their visit to Lesley. Additionally, the group will meet with faculty who teach integrated arts and expressive therapy to learn how the arts can contribute to learning and healing.

March 2010: Trip to Guyana

In March, 2010, Margaret Clemons, Lesley University’s Associate Provost, Dr. Gene Diaz and Dr. Mitchell Kossak, Expressive Therapies Division Director at Lesley University traveled to Guyana to meet with the Minister of Human Services and Social Security (Priya Manickchand) to discuss the possibilities for collaboration between MCF and the government of Guyana. On behalf of MCF, Margaret Clemons presented Minister Manickchand with a check for the establishment of a scholarship fund for victims of violence currently living in the Ministry’s orphanages and shelters.

In addition the group met with Dr. Brian O’Toole, Director of Nations Schools and Nations University whose outstanding charitable works in Guyana’s underprivileged community make a future collaboration with MCF likely. The group also visited with Doris Roos, Director of the Child Protective Services of UNICEF, and Margaret Kertzious, Director of the Help & Shelter organization in Guyana. Margaret Clemons, on behalf of MCF, presented Help & Shelter with a contribution for their outstanding work in defense of women and children in Guyana. Meetings also took place with stakeholders at the Ministry of Education, Audrey Benn, Program Officer of the Women’s Policy Group at the University of Guyana as well as a number of education consultants to the Ministry of Education.