My condolences to the Sambad family, regarding the passing of Myron Sambad.
I first met Myron in the 1980's as a member of the Prince George Shriners and myself a committee member of the Telephone Employees Community Fund [Telus Community Ambassadors] in Prince George.
Many of us were phone line volunteers at the Prince George Crisis Centre and it was realized that some teenagers would seldom speak to an adult phone line volunteer, regarding challenges with their parents and peers. Therefore, the crisis centre board of directors determined that a separate phone line should be established for teenage callers.
The Prince George Shriners and the Telephone Employees Community Fund collaborated to raise the required funding to design training manuals and hold training sessions for high school students and other youth to establish the Prince George Teen Crisis Phone LIne. Both the adult and teen crisis lines are considered important services in our community and are still operating.
In 2007, an international committee initiated a program similar to the Prince George Teen Crisis Line training at an isolated farming community in Guyana. Among its five thousand citizens, there were many school dropouts and many teen suicides. Training was provided for dozens of high school students in leadership, peer counselling and suicide intervention at the University of Guyana campus. After training, the students returned to their high-risk villages and established youth groups with sports facilities, which attracted the youth in their community. The goal of the youth groups was to counsel the youth regarding managing their challenges and encourage them to return to school.
Within a short time, the youth groups resulted in many youths returning to school and also graduating from high school and the University of Guyana. Many of the graduates became teachers at the school they once dropped out of and formed mentorship programs for new students, with continued support.
My gratitude, respect and admiration for Myron Sambad's contribution to our community.
Vince Ramcharran
Prince George
