CIVIL society organizations across Guyana will convene a workshop on Thursday to brainstorm approaches to improve racial harmony and address ethnic tensions in the country.
The one-day workshop will be held under the sponsorship of Forum on Effectiveness & Solidarity (FES) with the theme, "Improving Race Relations. It takes place at the Methodist Outreach Centre on High Street.
In a similar manner to the successful experience of the first FES workshop a year ago, participants will determine the agenda of Thursday's workshop at the beginning of the day, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) said in a press statement yesterday. The workshop will then transforms "into a 'marketplace of ideas' in which participants attend whichever discussions interest them. New topics, which emerge as the day progresses, are added to the agenda in what is known as Open Space Technology - a democratic and participatory approach suited to exploring a wide variety of issues.
GHRA said the primary aim of the workshop is to identify a range of tasks that need to be addressed if a national strategy on race and ethnicity is to be developed. A second aim is to identify organizations with similar interest to one's own in order to create effective coalitions and networks to improve racial harmony. The third aim is to rank the issues that the workshop identifies in some order of priority.
Wide ranges of civil and religious organizations have been invited to participate. The Coordinating Committee of the workshop comprises the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), Clerical & Commercial Workers' Union (CCWU), the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Guyana Postal & Telecom Workers Union (GPTWU), Red Thread, Rights Of Children (ROC), Youth in Development, and the YMCA-Linden. The GHRA is providing administrative services for the Workshop.