Chapter 2:12
“Keeping H.O.P.E. Alive”
By Ron Daniel
Just over a year ago I was approached by the visionary and President of HOPE Nevis, Mr. Rohan Isles to be part of a group of young people who would positively impact the society. He informed me that he had already contacted other like minded individuals and that he also wanted me on board. The acronym H.O.P.E. he said would embody the mission of the group i.e. Helping Our People Excel. Immediately I jumped on board and by August 2006, after some months of planning H.O.P.E. Nevis was born. My article this week will speak briefly to the genesis of HOPE, the mission of HOPE, what HOPE has accomplished so far and what we intend to accomplish moving forward.
The group was formed after we felt there was too much negativity being spoken about our generation. Our aim was to help to change the news headlines from “Two young men charged with the killing of Mary Jane” to “Youth Group provides for needy children.” We feel that while there were other groups of people doing things to help our youths that we felt that as young people we too can do something to help our young people excel. We coined the mission statement; "To assist in the positive development of our young people by actively engaging them in programs and activities that would help them excel in all aspects of life.” Rohan Isles, Joel Pogson, Frank Jeffers, Troy Jeffers, Vincia Herbert, Asure Dee Liburd, Shirna Browne and I set about with gusto trying to make this dream a reality. While HOPE Nevis initially started as an all male group, by the second meeting we decided that to exclude the insightful and intelligent female gender would be detrimental. Our membership has now grown to more than 20 although quite a few have since left the island to pursue studies overseas. Our present executive now reads as Rohan Isles (President), yours truly (Vice President/PRO), Clair Lake (Secretary), Danielle Martin (Treasurer) and Kyle Weekes (Assistant Secretary/Treasurer). When we launched we were not sure of how we would be perceived but we launched out anyway. Since then the firm of Deon Daniel and Associates graciously consented to sponsor the costs related with the development, design and hosting of our website www.hopenv.org and the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union has also been kind enough to allow us to use their conference room for our bi-weekly Monday evening meetings.
While the year gone by has produced its disappointments we are glad that after a year we are still active and still keeping hope alive. At the very outset, we made it clear that we didn’t need to re-invent the wheel but partner with others to keep the wheels of positive social action turning. As such, in December 2006, we sponsored the Change Center Christmas Party for needy children in the community upon inquiring of Rev Salome James what we could do to help them. During 2007 HOPE launched its Motivational Speech Series throughout the primary schools. HOPE visited almost all the primary schools in Nevis and gave motivational talks to the Grade 6 students encouraging them to excel. It pleased the members of HOPE to see how the children responded as well as how willing the various teachers were to allow us to come in and speak. There we stressed the importance of education and showed how a good education as child was intricately linked to a better life as an adult. In March of 2007 HOPE also lent its efforts to helping the Debating Team for the Leeward Islands Debating Competition. In May of 2007 HOPE also partly sponsored a young Nevisian athletic group called the Gladiators who were traveling to Barbados to compete in a Track and Field Meet. In July of 2007 HOPE was also instrumental in organizing the first ever Basketball Tournament on the new Basket Ball Court in Gingerland.
On September 15th HOPE also cleaned up Pinneys Beach as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day. Significantly also on Friday October 12th 2007 HOPE organized its first in its quarterly serious of Young Development Seminars where 26 young participants from the private sector and the NIA. During the seminar participants were exposed to sessions on Time Management, the importance of teamwork in the workplace, Proper Work ethic and Professionalism in the Workplace and Delivering Quality Customer Service. HOPE Nevis has also joined the Nevis HIV AIDS Unit Effort and have also been working along with the Nevis HIV AIDS Committee (NEHAC.) We have also assisted with the recent Back to School Rally, the organization of Youth Month 2007, the Nevis HIV Aids Unit Candle Lighting Service inter alia.
In the short term, HOPE intends to launch the HOPE Deserving Child Award which will provide daily hot lunches to students in the lower socio-economic bracket. If there are any businesses or individuals that are willing to donate to this cause, we will welcome their contribution. This school year HOPE has decided to adopt the St John’s Primary School. As part of this adoption HOPE intends to be involved in mentoring programs as well as being the social partner to the school in all of its endeavours. In December 2007 HOPE also intends to organize in association with the Change Center a Christmas Party for some under-privileged children. In 2008 HOPE in association with the National HIV Aids Coordinating Unit intends to launch a major HIV AIDS Program aimed at education, prevention and stemming the pernicious effect of discrimination. HOPE will continue to either fully organize or help to organize sporting and or educational competitions. We will also continue our Motivational Talk Series throughout all schools in Nevis and also intend to continue in our giving to altruistic causes.
We know that there have been many other youth groups that have been formed in Nevis and have since gone dormant. We know that we have set lofty goals for ourselves in the short to long term. We also know that the task ahead of us is great but we intend to rise to the occasion and be steadfast in our quest to accomplish our mission statement as stated above. HOPE believes that we have been put on Nevis for such a time as this and we would be doing ourselves and our country a disservice, if we, like others, sit back and do nothing about the worrying state of affairs among our youth. We believe like Martin Luther King Jr. that “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” The members of HOPE Nevis are not merely members of another youth organization but people who are sacrificial in nature and sober in our commitment to helping our people excel. My clarion call to NGO’s, Government ministries, Corporate Nevis and all well meaning citizens is to help us keep HOPE alive.
