Week 2: We're Ridin' Solo

            Hello again! We cannot believe that it’s already been two weeks, but time flies when you keep busy. This week was off to an exciting start as we were approved by the Ministry of Education to teach in public schools! With our approval we quickly started approaching schools regarding the possibility of engaging in health based discussions in classrooms.

The same day that we received our approval, we were luck enough to be interviewed by Kaieteur News about our purpose and goals while in Georgetown. It was interesting being able to tour their facilities and see where newspapers were made daily. It was also very exciting to see a feature of us in the Kaieteur Newspaper the next morning! Here is the link to the article if you're interested! http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2017/05/09/queens-health-outreach-contributing-to-guyana-over-30-years/

Tuesday was yet another busy day; with our Ministry of Education approval we continued approaching more public schools before Cora arrived from Berbice. We had the opportunity to meet the Deputy of the Ministry of Education and got to learn more about what the Ministry of Education does throughout the country.

After our busy morning and afternoon at Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre we had the opportunity to be featured on “Reality Check”, a segment on NTN’s radio station. We spent the full hour feature discussing topics of stress and positive thinking.

Sadly Wednesday morning we had to say goodbye to our amazing Program Directors. Despite being sad about having to say goodbye to Rebecca and Cora, it was our first day being able to navigate solo. We spent the day continuing approaching more schools and organizing our teaching schedules for the upcoming weeks, which kept us busy for the day.

The rest of the week was filled with teaching, meetings, and another afternoon at Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre. On Friday we got the chance to attend the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association’s (GRPA) Youth Advocacy Movement (YAM) meeting where they announced the launch of Guyana’s #Idecide campaign. This campaign emphasizes women’s reproductive rights to awareness and accessibility to contraceptives and sexual reproductive health. This movement has spread globally and we got the opportunity to witness the launch of Guyana’s branch of the movement.

Overall it has been an exciting week being approved by the Ministry of Education to teach in public schools, saying goodbye to our program directors and being able to navigate on our own. We cannot wait to see what the next week’s holds as we have many more classes planned.

                  

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!

Best,

Shannon, Shannen, Haylee, and Manny