RHTY&SC, Aurora Gold Mine assist 10 students with bicycles for school

“Nothing is important to the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), MS, than the promotion of education and sports to our youths. In my book, education is the number one goal that every human being should aim for. Education and sports are two safe avenues that can transform a life from rags to riches, tears … and sleepless nights to unmatched happiness. As long as the RHTY&SC exists, we would promote the importance of education and sports as our number one priority.”
Those were the words of longtime Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RHTY&SC, Hilbert Foster at a simple presentation ceremony as the Club handed out 10 bicycles to schoolchildren on Friday last at the St Francis Training Centre in Rose Hall Town, Berbice.
The donation was made possible with the financial support of one of the RHTY&SC official donors, Aurora Gold Mine. The company, a section of the Canada-based Guyana Goldfields Inc, had earlier in July donated $500, 000 to the RHTY&SC. The donation will be used by Guyana’s leading youth and sports organisation to donate the bicycles, print thousands of anti-suicide educational posters and to host a youth inspirational forum for hundreds of students in September 2019.
Seven of the students receiving the bicycles were specially selected by the cricket teams of the RHTY&SC, while the remaining three were drawn from the Blairmont, Chesney and Number 19 Kendall’s Union Cricket Clubs.
Foster disclosed that the RHTY&SC Club and its 10 cricket teams in 2019 have already donated close to $1 million worth of bicycles to students under its Say Yes to Education Campaign. The main objective is to assist less fortunate students to attend school at no cost to their parents and to also assist those who are involved in sports to attend practice in the afternoons. Foster cautioned the students and their parents that the cycles should not be used for the purchase of items like alcohol and tobacco.
Special thanks were extended to Aurora Gold Mine and its staff especially Peter Benny, Miranda La Rose, and Dilon Brathwaite for their support in making the donations of bicycles possible. With the rainy season affecting the restart of the 2019 cricket season in Berbice, the RHTY&SC and its cricket teams are pushing ahead with the promotion of the highly-successful Say No/Say Yes Campaign.
Under the Campaign, the teams urge youths to say no to drugs, crime, suicide, alcohol, and tobacco and yes to education, culture, religion, sports, and life. They have already distributed close to $5 million worth of bicycles, school bags, cricket gear, trophies, medals, cricket balls, educational materials, and score books among other items to youths; schools; Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); churches and sporting organisations in Berbice.
The RHTY&SC has also printed another edition of its Youth Information Booklet and is currently working with the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) to publish the first-ever information booklet for youth cricketers in Guyana.