YWCA of Barbados launches ‘I Give Back Campaign’
BARBADIANS ARE being urged to give back their time and energy to the community in which they were raised. President of the YWCA of Barbados, Marilyn Rice-Bowen, made the plea at the launch of the campaign at their Deacons, St Michael headquarters.
“This campaign is being launched to heighten the sense of volunteerism in the country. The YWCA will be one of the beneficiaries of the I Give Back campaign. When one listens to the talk circulating in society today everybody is very critical of our young, very few people are committing themselves to some form of action in order to address the situation. Most people tend to use the sledgehammer approach, very few of them are saying ‘I will do this to make a difference’,” she said.
The President said their approach was to encourage people, particularly those that have made names for themselves, to go back to their communities of origin instead of distancing themselves and show the youth that reside there that they too can succeed.
“People talk about the absence of role models but your community made you and you have gone on a distanced yourself from that community, that young boy or girl within your respective community they don’t have anybody to look up to and the first person that gets to them and gives them that hug or that feeling of reassurance they will gravitate towards,” Rice-Bowen asserted.
Rice-Bowen also launched another campaign — the tele-companion project — aimed at assisting shut-ins. She is inviting churches and communities to register the names and telephone numbers of the people who will be paired with a tele-volunteer, whose task is to link the person with the outside world.
“This project can be done within the comfort of your home. Those persons who might want to join the I Give Back campaign but who might say ‘I don’t have transportation or I don’t like to leave home at night’, today you can be a tele-companion, you can be the light of the world for that shut-in,” the President said.
At a date to be announced, said the YWCA Communications Director Marilyn Sealy, there will be a national volunteer day with a get on the move bus trip planned throughout communities. She emphasised that work need not be done with the YWCA with any other social organisation.
Sealy also said the campaign would be “highly visible” with advertisements on television and radio jingles and promotional items would be handed out. This is expected to get underway in a “couple weeks”. Sealy also noted that the YWCA was looking to increase its membership – which is more than 100 – through the campaign.
