Scouts in Action for Literacy in Guyana In Guyana 60% of children, especially boys between the ages of 9 - 11 cannot read. We have also, noted that quite a bit of our young Scouts falling into this category of not being able to read, write or use the computer, so Scout Association of Guyana decided to open a Computer Room & Library to help these persons by offering reading and computer classes. For over a year now the Commissioners had an idea, based on the lack of literacy of some Scouts in various groups to start a Computer Room & Library to help those Scouts who cannot read, write or use the computers to be able to do so.   We took the idea to our Executive Body and they supported the idea wholeheartedly. As with any project of this nature we needed donations or funding to get started. We started working on getting donations and got a call from the local Food for the Poor Organization who made the inital donation of 5 computers. Donations of books also started to come in, and the little monies we worked for at various events assisted us to complete preparations of the room itself.   As things started to fall into place we started to get a little complacent with ourselves and dragged our feet around, until one day we decided to put an actual deadline to have the room completed and opened. The date we choose to do have everything completed and offically opened was Feb. 22, 2013 (Founder's Day). After hitting many road blocks with the setup of the computers, we were able to get a few more company's on board to assist with the needs of updated monitors, and a cpu with higher speed to run as a server linking 5 computers to run off of one cpu;and going through several boxes of books, recording them and packing them on selves we finally had everything up and ready for Opening Day..    On Founder's Day few persons (Scouts) from various Groups around Guyana gathered at Scout Headquarters for the Opening of our Computer Room & Library. The proceedings started at 5:30pm lead by our Chief Scout, Mr. Ramsay Ali & Chief Commissioner, Zaida Joaquin. The ribbon was cut by a Cub Scout from Saints Stanislaus Scout Group, assisted by an Explorer Scout from Queen's College Scout Group and Venturer Scout from Brickdam Cathedral Scout Group.   In the opening remarks from our Chief Scout, it was noted that during a recent survey in a few regions of Guyana it was discovered that about 60% of our children, especially boys between the ages of 9 - 11 cannot read or write. And as we go out into other far off regions these statistics gets worse. So with the opening of our facility we will be gearing computer classes and reading classes to both Scouts & Non-Scouts, especially targeting the school children of the various schools surrounding our Headquarters. Volunteers will come from Scout Leaders and Friends of Scouts who are willing to devote their time to see this project become a success. We are aiming to start classes in the first week of March.   The Chief Commissioner thanked all the various companies and organizations that helped with donations namely, Sterling Products Limited, Hand-in-Hand, Rotary Club of Georgetown, E-Networks Inc and Food for the Poor. She also thanked those who worked for countless hours leading up to the Opening. Categories: Children & Youth Peace building When: Feb 2013 Participants: 30 Number of service hours: 280 Link: http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/?[...]ation+of+Guyana Locations: