The Central New Amsterdam Boxing Gym out of New Amsterdam Berbice recently held elections for office bearers as a new executive body was put into place to run the affairs of the Gym. The gym, which is based at the Central Police station New Amsterdam, was formed in February 2010 with an Interim Management committee in place. That has since been dissolved and a new body which is a mix of Businessmen, police officers and ordinary citizen has been put into place.
The new executive body is comprised of Credit Officer Michael Gouveia who president; Sergeant Forbes Brown, vice president; Mohamed Shameer Khan, Secretary; Sation Sergeant Michael Newland, Treasurer; Julie Folkard, Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer;
Some members of the Central New Amsterdam Boxing Gym: Among them sitting from left; is PRO Inspector Jairam Ramlakhan, President Michael Gouveia. Standing is Station Sergeant Michael Newland; at centre is Corporal Terrence Hamilton.
Inspector Jairam Ramlakhan, Public Relations Officer. The Committee members are Bank Manager Imran Sacoor, Corporal Terrence Hamilton, Abdul Jafarand businessmen, Mahendra Totatram, and Dhansar Singh Ramnarace. John Abid Ali will serve as the Head Coach with Aubrey Cadogan being the assistant coach.
The motto of the Gym is “Boxing is a mannerly art of self defence”.
Speaking with new president, Gouveia, he stated that the main purpose of the gym is to recruit and train youngsters to become top fighters in Guyana. He stated that another objective is to help keep the youths off the street, by getting them involved in meaningful activity.
“By getting them involved in organized activities it will help to keep them away from the scourge of drugs and other illicit activities,” Gouveia said. Boxing will also help with their discipline he mentioned. At the moment the gym has about 10 fighters of both genders. Training is done on a daily basis from 17:00 hours with Coaches Ali and Cadogan, on Sundays however coaching begins from 09:00 hrs.
Membership is open to youngsters from 12 to 18 and persons interested can get in touch with anyone of the executive members. Gouveia stated that he is happy to be involved in something that would benefit the Youths and the society as a whole. The members of the new executive are calling on the business community to come forward and assist in whatever way possible. For the little contributions will go a far way in making the lives of the members of the gym better and the community a safer place.
The gym has since sought full membership with the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association.