PERMANENT secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Major Richard Reece, has charged graduates of a course under the Community Security Initiative (CSI) to “prove to the world that all you needed was an opportunity to succeed”.

He told the 28 graduates during a ceremony last Thursday at the Excelsior Community College, where the computer repairs course was delivered, that the skill they have been taught will allow them to be masters of their own destinies.

The course comprised learning fundamentals of electronics, PC upgrades and repairs, basic mathematics, communication, customer service, literacy, numeracy and entrepreneurial skills.

Classes ran from June to July, however, Major Reece said the students elected to return for make-up classes and self-development seminars.

“The 28 students were not from uptown, an indication that bright sparks and strong ambition are just about everywhere, they just needed to be harnessed,” he said.

The class comprised 24 men and four women from the communities of Highlight View, Matthew’s Lane and March Pen Road.

The aims of the programme were to provide participants with a marketable skill, as well as help them to be able to go back to their communities and share their skills.

Major Reece noted that, as part of the thrust to ensure the knowledge is transferred, the ministry would be establishing computer laboratories in their communities. One of the laboratories has already been completed in Matthew’s Lane.

Guest speaker at the graduation, director of Students Expressing Truth, Kevin Wallen, charged the graduates not to take what they have accomplished lightly.

“When you get your (certificates) and you go home, frame them and put them on your wall with pride and let it be a reminder that you have done something, you have accomplished something, and let it be a stepping stone for the next thing you want to accomplish,” he said.

Wallen also encouraged them not to allow the negative comments of others to affect them.

“Until you learn to stop reacting to the actions and the words of others, is when you truly start to grow because the external forces will destroy you,” he added.

Delivering the valedictory address, Marvin Stephenson, said the graduates were aware of the opportunity given to them and that they would try their best to empower their communities.

CSI is a social intervention programme within the Ministry of National Security, which is funded by the Department for International Development.