GG Urges Service Clubs to Reach Out To At Risk Youths

The Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, has charged members of service organisations to reach out to at risk youths.
The Governor General was speaking on Thursday (February 11) at the Rotary Club of Kingston’s weekly meeting, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, where he was inducted as an honorary member.
He said that despite the very commendable community development projects of many service organisations, there were still uncharted areas to pursue. He proposed that one such area was to focus on breaking the current trend marginalised young men in society, whose talents and ambitions are going unrealised and sometimes unnoticed.
“We notice for example the underperformance of male students in school, in comparison to their female counterparts. Many young men are falling through the cracks and are engaging in all sorts of deviant behaviour,” he said.
He suggested that the mentoring of the youth was a project that service organizations, like the Rotary, should tackle urgently.
“We need to find a way to make our youths want to pursue honourable activities and career paths, as part of the process of becoming adults. In this way they can, legitimately and honestly, take care of themselves, take care of their families and contribute to society,” the Governor General said.
“As Rotarians, we are ideally positioned and eminently qualified to facilitate training in the area of character building. In this way the (positive) ideals of a nation can be impressed upon the minds of our young people,” he stated.
He added that more should also be done to rekindle the youth’s interest and involvement in service groups, such as the Girls Guides, the Cadet Corps and the Boys Scout.
“It is within these organisations that our youths are complemented with and begin to model the values of respect, honesty, integrity, hard work, perseverance, cooperation and unity,” the Governor General said.