By Avenash Ramzan
Using sports to help youths cope with mental health issues, Miss World Guyana 2018, Ambika Ramraj, on Thursday concluded a six-week camp, which formed part of her ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ platform.
Over 50 students participated in the programme, which was based at the Sophia Special School. At the conclusion of the activity, the eager participants were presented with certificates of participation and a hamper each.
That apart, they left with immense knowledge on how to cope with mental health issues, and use the various disciplines in this regard.
“These past six weeks with you guys have been really fun, and it has helped me learnt a lot and I’ve enjoyed every second of it, even the moments when we may have had a few quarrels and so on,” Ramraj told the participants at the closing.
“I enjoyed it because I know you would have learnt from it; I learnt a whole lot from it as well. The first two weeks was getting to know you guys, but all the experiences that you guys went through and that I went through with you, I’m really grateful for.”
She added, “From the swimming days you had; table tennis days, basketball days, football, cricket…everything you would have done, I really appreciate all of you putting 100% into it.”
While hailing the event as a success, Ramraj pointed to the participants as the real reasons for the many accomplishments made over the past six weeks.
“Without each of you we would not be able to do this or be here. So I really want to thank all of you- even though you might say some days were boring, you know some days were fun and you enjoyed it at least something from it. So I want to thank you for coming out, through everything, thick and thin, through the days I wasn’t the best. I hope that when this programme continues and in the other parts we have coming, that you will give your full support and participation,” the Miss World Guyana stated.
Franchise Holder and National Director of the Miss World Guyana, Natasha Martindale, explained that ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ provides the national winners with an opportunity to be of service to the community.
“What our young women have been doing over the years is picking a cause near and dear to their heart and really investing their time and effort, and obviously some fundraising element, to make Guyana, as well as their project, impactful,” Martindale explained.
Between 2014 and 2017, the reigning queens were able to touch on issues such as Domestic Violence (Rafieya Husain), Suicide Prevention (Lisa Punch), Mental Health Awareness (Nuriyyih Gerrard) and Diabetes (Vena Mookram).
According to Martindale, this year’s focus is on Childhood Trauma.
“It is really all about mental health awareness because a young child that suffers from some type of trauma needs mental health intervention. And so what this programme has been doing is getting a group of young people, ages 12 to 19, really speaking to them through sports, and ensuring that they are exposed to physical activity that can have a positive impact on their entire experience with life, changing their perception, getting them a little more confident and self-aware and dealing with a lot of other problems,” Martindale explained.
