Counselling, Counselling Training & Organisational Capacity Building Project (Funded by CIDA’s Gender Equality Program)

The goals of this project were to:

1. Educate and empower people to adopt peaceful and non-violent means for resolving conflicts in their lives and to pursue healthy relationships based on mutual respect and appreciation of human rights, and
2. Make a significant contribution in rural areas of Guyana to a reduction in the incidence of domestic and gender-based violence and to extending the availability of assistance to victims.

Project activities comprise:

1. The expansion of our counselling services to Moruca and Leguan
2. Building the organisational capacity of 2 Berbice-based NGOs, namely FACT and Comforting Hearts
3. Providing counselling training to the Essequibo coast-based NGO, Hope for All

The project was originally to run for 6 months (July 2009 - January 2010), but counselling in New Amsterdam was extended to 15 March 2010 and in early April additional funding of $1.3m was provided, which would enable the continuation of counselling services for a further 2 months.

Reports of the project handover were in the Stabroek News, the Guyana Times and the Guyana Chronicle of 17 July, 2009