The Words of the Tardy Family
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The Words of the Tardy Family |
A news article was posted in Kaieteur News, a privately owned daily newspaper in Guyana, South America, about the service work done by foreigners in Special Task Force (STF), a character-education program for Unificationist college-age youth.
After a recent Mashramani, a city-wide celebration of Republic Day, in Georgetown, STF worked together with the city in Guyana to clean up the debris left after the event. See article below.
Mr. John Gehring, an experienced overseas service-work consultant helping the youth on STF with their work in South American countries, commented to Familyfed after the service project that garbage collection is both a practical as well as political issue in Guyana. "The city government complains that the national government is not supporting it enough -- they represent different parties and in a way, different races. The mayor of Georgetown, Hon. Hamilton Green welcomed the idea of STF cleaning after the celebration," Gehring said. "STF was also active in preparing some of the floats, and took part in the parade."
Eunhwa Mouada, a youth leader of the STF team currently in Georgetown, Guyana reported: "All of us are growing and learning a lot. We met the Prime Minister of Guyana and the Mayor of Georgetown. The mayor was encouraging the members to be fearless when it comes to what they believe is right and to not let other people influence their decisions."
STF is also currently sending youth from the United States to provide service to other overseas countries such as Honduras and Costa Rica.
In the aftermath of the Mashramani float parade [a city-wide celebration of Republic Day], the city was a mess. However, 20 Americans combined their energy with the Mayor and City Council (MandCC) to clean up sections of the city on Thursday.
According to the members of the special task force of the Unification Church, they are working out of the United States to promote brotherhood and service through Christianity.
One member said that the group raised money to visit Guyana. The members are involved in activities that would promote God's love through service. Some of the programs that the group is involved in are; the replanting of mangroves, assisting with services at the Joshua House orphanage while building homes for Habitat for Humanity.
It was also disclosed that the group works with Non-governmental organizations to promote development within the country. According to Mayor Hamilton Green, the MandCC will be spending almost $1M in the cleanup since many more trucks have to be hired to remove the tons of garbage that will be retrieved from various parts of the city
He said that it could be more since the disposal services would want to charge more for the distance to the Haags Bosch dumpsite in Eccles, East Bank Demerara. It was also noted that in spite of attempts by the MandCC to persuade people to keep litter where it belongs, in a proper litter/garbage receptacle, many continue to blatantly use the parapets in the city as dumping sites.
At the scene of the clean up Thursday, some passersby were of the opinion that on every Republic anniversary the fine for littering appears to have been waived and there seems to be indiscipline on the part of the revelers and citizens in the country each year for Mashramani.
"Imagine, foreigners have to help us clean up our mess. This is a shame."