About
Guiding Light Leads seeks to:
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Help in solving the problem of racial misunderstanding in the UK, with its attendant biases on several fronts.
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Address the cause of the problem rather than attending to the symptoms.
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Address the institutionalised inequalities in schools, in the workplace and in the penal system with its ultimate negative effect on the economic state of this group of people.
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Address the root cause of the problem of the misconstrued idea of who the African is.
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Hold conversations with the population in general about the negative construct of the image of the African, the African-Caribbean and how that image impacts undesirably all aspects of the well-being of the African Caribbean.
WHAT ARE WE ABOUT?
We attempt to engage with the African-Caribbean community in a positive manner, gaining the trust and attention of our people. We shall be having meaningful discussions that will up-end our present negative impression of self which has been handed down for centuries.
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We also aspire to relate with institutions such as the justice system, education system and the workplace with the goal of re-establishing the African to his rightful position of equality with all races.
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Yvonne Opebiyi
Guiding Light Leads
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Par conséquent, I have the exceptional experience of knowing what it is like to be black in the four major geographical concentration of black and African people.
I have founded GLL, because of the vast amount of African Caribbean young people in jail and the scanty amount graduating from universities or apprenticeship programmes. This is a regretful situation that needs to be addressed.
GLL will be looking at this issue and trying to redress the balance by:
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Identifying the factors causing continued lack of progress.
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Examining and implementing the best ways of removing/shifting hindrances.
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Dialoguing with appropriate institutional bodies regarding the problems and the help needed.
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Finding proactive ways of enlightening both communities on traditional problems and overcoming problems.
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Emphasising and empowering younger generation for greater achievements and aspirations.
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Creating and establishing self-worth programmes.
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Working with the community on how to overcome problems.
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Promoting value and possibility of education at a tertiary level.
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Creating opportunities to establish community self-help and actualisation solutions.
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Getting government recognition and implementation of self-help projects.
Hi, I am Yvonne Lee Opebiyi, the founder of Guiding Light Leads.
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I believe that I have an advantageous viewpoint on being black. I was born in the Caribbean and had my secondary education there which gave me a strong sense of pride in self and identity.
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I came to England in what is now known as the Windrush generation. I did my nursing and midwifery studies and then moved to Nigeria with my husband and two babies.
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I lived in Nigeria for over twenty years, surviving five military coupe d’état. Now the mother of four Nigerian children, I had to teach them how to be Nigerians. To be able to teach, you must learn.
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I then moved to the US and worked as a nurse in top ranking hospitals and with war veterans.