Category Archives: Press

A trip to Guyana on assignment as a private investigator led New Yorker Margaret Clemons to the country’s culture of violence, and the youth she would later inspire to tell their tale through photography in “Rebecca’s Story,” a short film which premiered to rave reviews at the recent CAFA Film Nights, Guyanese edition in Brooklyn.

Clemons, who started Witness Project International — a foundation to engage youth communities in arts-based programs, spoke passionately about using this medium to address violence because of the way art appeals to people.

“We are affected by what we see, and awareness makes us want to do, and change things,” Clemons said.

The gripping narrative about violence at the hands of Rebecca’s grandmother, and how the youth escapes the brutality by dreaming of the jungle — raises a serious issue about the epidemic that continues to threaten the lives Guyanese youth.

Rebecca’s new life comes through a literacy program from a neighbor who was a ‘witness’ to violence in the yard of the family’s home.

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In spring 2011, negotiations occurred between Sesame Workshop and the nation of Guyana to develop a local co-production of Sesame Street. In April 2011, Guyana’s Permanent Ambassador to the United States Bayney Karran and Guyana Minister of Human Services Priya Manickchand met with senior executives at Sesame Workshop in New York. The series would be aired on the Education Broadcasting Television Service channel.

Gender equality and gender-based violence would be among the show’s focuses; the Margaret Clemons Foundation facilitated the meeting between Guyana and Sesame Workshop.

Other planned topics were HIV/AIDS, nutrition, the importance of exercise, public safety themes (wear your seatbelt, look both ways before crossing, don’t litter), ethnic tolerance and understanding and appreciating differences, and respect for seniors.

Attending the meeting were Sesame Workshop staff:

• H. Melvin Ming, Chief Operating Officer;
• Charlotte Cole, Senior Vice President Global Education;
• Lisa Annunziata, Vice President Production Operations Global TV;
• Jorge Baxter, Director International Research;
• Christopher Capobianco, Senior Director Project Management;
• Nancy Stevenson, Director Character Design;
• Alysia Christiani, Studio Manager Marketing & Creative Services

No further news has surfaced to date.

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THE local chapter of the New York-based Margaret Clemons Foundation yesterday began a domestic violence workshop for children aimed at reducing domestic and gender-based violence, and child abuse in society. Some of the children who participated in the workshop yesterday.The initiative is a continuous community outreach project for youths, and the aim of the foundation is to use art to end this growing scourge in society.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle during an interview at the local offices situated at the Help & Shelter Building on Homestretch Avenue, Ms. Margaret Clemons, founder of the organisation, said it is her belief that the scourge would best be eradicated by taking a different approach to the situation.

“We believe that by using the arts and using children we could be able to make bolder statements that adults can hear and look at through the visual programme. It’s a photography programme, it’s something that will hit home,” she stressed.

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Andy Hunte is dead at two months old. He died on Tuesday night as a result of being caught in the crossfire of physical abuse being meted out by one of his parents to the other. According to a report carried in this newspaper, Andy Hunte was presented at the Georgetown Public Hospital with lacerations to his body and a gaping wound to the head. He was unconscious and subsequently succumbed. Andy Hunte’s short miserable life is an extreme example of the effect violence between adults—especially in home—has on children. In this case Andy Hunte lost his life; often, children lose their childhood.

While there are systems in place to deal with the abuse of children and while violence against women is slowly being addressed, the plight of children caught in the crossfire, who may not be actually physically harmed, has mostly been ignored despite the fact that it is well known that they can be mentally and emotionally affected by what they see and hear.

The Margaret Clemons Foundation’s Witness Project, which is closely aligned with the international project Inside Out by French artist/photographer JR, used his motto, “what we see changes who we are”, in its massive roll out at the end of January this year of huge photo/posters around Georgetown. The posters of eyes and faces taken by 15 children who have been involved with the project since last year, sought to use art to get the message out there that children are seeing and experiencing violence and that it changes them. This aspect of the project was successfully executed—hundreds of posters were pasted up around the city—and it started conversations. But where do we as a society go from here? Children who are witnessing violence need more.

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– US Ambassador to Guyana, D. Brent Hardt

ON the occasion of International Women’s Day, observed worldwide yesterday, United States Ambassador to Guyana, D. Brent Hardt, has assured that the US Embassy will continue to reach out into the Guyanese community to support and recognize women who are making a difference. US Ambassador Brent Hardt. To this end, he said the embassy is planning to host a symposium focusing on ‘Strategies for Successful Women’ that will bring together women from across the social spectrum to discuss their distinctive challenges and opportunities.

Ambassador Hardt likened women to “a cornerstone of America’s foreign policy, because the simple fact is that no country can hope to move ahead if it is leaving half of its people behind.
“Women and girls drive our economies.

They build peace and prosperity,” he said, noting that investing in women means investing in global economic progress, political stability, and greater prosperity for everyone.
“As we honour women of courage, let us renew our resolve to work for the cause of equality each and every day of the year,” he added.

Referring to remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Ambassador said they have particular resonance as people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day and continue to make strides for women’s progress.

“What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish,” Secretary of State Clinton said.

Ambassador Hardt recalled too, that in December, President Obama released the first-ever U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, charting a roadmap for how the United States will accelerate and institutionalize efforts across the government to advance women’s participation in preventing conflict and keeping peace.

This initiative, he said, “represents a fundamental change in how the United States will approach its diplomatic, military, and development-based support to women in areas of conflict, by ensuring that their perspectives and considerations of gender are woven into the fabric of how the United States approaches peace processes, conflict prevention and the protection of civilians.

The US Embassy also sought to participate in non-governmental initiatives such as the “Witness Project,” launched by the Margaret Clemons Foundation that used photography of eyes of children and the faces of Guyanese from all walks of life to spark a nationwide discussion on domestic violence and how to reduce its incidence.”

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