Forde exhorts gov’t to invest more in sports
—during outreach programme with Ramson Jr.,
Minister of Sport Charles Ramson Jr., has commended the work of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), following visits to the National Training Centre, Providence, and Tiger Bay last Saturday respectively.
According to a release from the GFF, Minister Ramson Jr., said that he was impressed with the work of the federation.
“I’m pretty impressed overall with the pace of the work and also the quality of the work being done here by the GFF and the leadership of Wayne Forde,” said Ramson Jr.
“It shows the level of commitment the GFF is willing to pursue and the effort that they are willing to advance in the development of young talent, young Guyanese talent,” he added.
The minister disclosed that his ministry and the GFF would be collaborating on a number of projects.
“I’m happy also to say that we are going to be working on a number of projects together,” he said while also heaping praise on the GFF for its community outreach in Tiger Bay where football equipment was presented to the residents.
Present at the outreach were GFF Executive Committee Member, Dion Inniss, Georgetown Football Association President, Otis James and National Security Advisor Gerald Gouveia.
“Presenting that ball, while it may just be a ball, it is a symbol of what your life could become too. In addition to that, it’s some life changing lessons that you learn when you are doing sport; team work, competitiveness, being able to have the discipline, setting your goals and working towards your goals all those are things that I developed by playing competitive sport, which I had just transposed into my professional life,” said the minister.
Forde exhorted the government to invest more in sports.
“I’ve said often times in my public discourse that if sports is given 10% of what the state invests in incarcerating young people they can take that 10% and save almost 100% of those young men that find themselves on the other side of the law.”
He added, “It has to be a collaboration between national sporting bodies and one of the key stakeholders in the development of people, which is the Government of Guyana. I am very encouraged by the minister’s posture from the very day in office; it was moving to me that the very first engagement I had with him was at his invitation.”
Forde also thanked the minister for accompanying him on the outreach programme.
“I want to commend him for taking the time out to visit the Tiger Bay Community and we’ll be more than willing minister to participate in other engagements that you have to other communities and to do whatever we can to enhance the experience of the stakeholders, the young boys and girls in those communities that will ultimately benefit from the engagements,” he declared.