Allison Dundas

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“Staying Alive” was the theme when Miss Guyana World, Lisa Punch, launched her Beauty with a Purpose campaign aimed at tackling suicide among teenagers.The campaign, “Stay Alive”, was launched on the observance of World Suicide Prevention Day 2015 on Thursday. It was under Punch’s organisation, Prevention of Teenage Suicide (POTS) Guyana. The launch also came at the same time the Ministry of Public Health revealed its National Suicide Prevention Plan 2015-2020.During the event at Cara Lodge, Punch extensively outlined the new campaign and explained that its aim is to reduce the prevalence of suicide in Guyana through greater access to information, resources and support. She said, too, that campaign will address, educate, coordinate and provide materials to eradicate suicide and attempted suicide on a local and global level.From this launch, Punch predicted that the next step will be the establishment of a suicide crisis centre where persons can head in and speak directly to POTS representatives.However, she said, more persons needed to come onboard to make this dream a reality as manpower remained an issue.Additionally, POTS Guyana is already collaborating with nongovernmental organisations such as The Caribbean Voice as well as the Public Health, Education, and Social Protection ministries.Punch said that the Health Ministry is working on training POTS Volunteers on how to deal with teenagers with suicidal tendencies. Additionally, she said, the Education Ministry has committed to having a countrywide school tour where POTS Guyana will be visiting countless schools as part of its campaign. Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, also sent regards to Punch and the highest commendations for the necessary initiative. Best wishes were also extended by the United States Embassy.Meanwhile, Punch said that suicidal behaviour is a major public health priority worldwide and, in Guyana where suicide rates are the highest in the world, this is especially a concern.She explained that she too had recognized the importance of suicide prevention in teens. She said that over time persons had reached out to her. She added that she too had difficulties.“I was told time and time again that I was not enough and could not amount to much,” she said. She explained that she was suffering from immense pain but found music to be her relief.  She added that she learnt the necessity of sharing her own problems with others to help them with theirs.This subsequently led to the creation of POTS Guyana with the ultimate goal of not losing a single life to suicide. She said that the intention was also to help combat the growing rates of teenage suicides in Guyana as well as function for educational and charitable purposes.She emphasized that tackling suicide in youths was particularly important since they were the future of the nation.“It is a fact that valuable human resources enrich a country with skills, abilities and talents. We cannot afford to lose these before they are even found. We need these skills, abilities and talents to see us through. We need our generation and the next to say yes to living,” she said.However, all the work was not done by Punch and her team, and by the government ministries. She emphasized that the launch was as a result of collaborative efforts to lend voices to eradicate teenage suicide in Guyana. She also saw corporate Guyana playing its role. She shared that GT&T sponsored $4M to POTS Guyana.“We were able to raise $4M at one sitting with our executive sponsor GT&T,” she said. “I cannot be more proud and happy to not only have them onboard but to also lend my voice in their new vision of doing more.”She stressed that this multi-sectoral approach was what was needed.“One person, Ministry or organization cannot do it alone; as a people who pride ourselves on living our motto of ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’, we have a social responsibility to generate uplifting adequate facilities and opportunities for our young people,” she said.She further said that GTT has committed to providing seven billboards while The Caribbean Voice will provide three. A billboard will be erected in each administrative region of Guyana.GTT Representative, Allison Dundas, was present for the event. She expressed pleasure on the company’s behalf at being a part of the Beauty with a Purpose campaign.“When we were approached, we did not hesitate to jump onboard,” Dundas said. “GTT facilitates talk and any form of communication and we thought about how important it is to work with this organisation to facilitate worthy talk, lifesaving talk.” She said that as part of its commitment, GTT launched a hotline known as GTalk. The number for this hotline, she said, is 227-8255.“We’ve heard the statistics and they are very troubling. This is all of our concern; it’s all of our business and as a leading organisation in this country it’s our corporate responsibility to be involved in something of this nature,” she said. She further noted that GTT recently rebranded itself under the slogan “Do More”.“But it’s not just about GTT doing more; we all need to commit to do more to prevent suicide among our people. We do not need to lose another person after today,” she emphasised.Punch also launched her new video and song “Stay Alive”. The song will be packaged in a CD booklet along with the lyrics and warning signs for suicide along with where to go and what to do.The Beauty with a Purpose campaign is a part of the Miss World Pageant and sees contestants in various countries undertaking individual charity projects.