An organisation that focuses its efforts on the well-being and progression of young Bermudian men will celebrate it 100th Anniversary today.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. president Diallo Rabain spoke frankly to about the aims of the organisation through its education programmes.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was the first intercollegiate Greek-Letter fraternity for men of African descent and was founded on December 4, 1906, on the campus of Cornell University.

It was founded by seven young men who saw the need to form a support group in recognition of the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood.

The visionary founders, known as the ?Jewels? of the Fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle and Vertner Woodson Tandy.

The fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell.

The Jewels and early leaders of the Fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha?s principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character and the uplifting of humanity.

Soon after the founding at Cornell, Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were developed at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha also recognised the need to help correct the educational, economic, political and social injustices faced by African-Americans.

The fraternity has been integrated since 1946 and has supplied a voice and vision to the struggle of people of colour around the world.

Mr. Rabain said the Epsilon Theta Lambda Chapter (Bermuda) was chartered in Bermuda on February 21, 1950, by a group of Bermudian men who joined the fraternity while attending universities in America. ?Upon returning home in the late 1940s they perceived a need for an Alpha presence in Bermuda,? he said.

?The founders were Collingwood Burch MCP, Dr. Eustace A. Cann, Lawrence L. Clark, H. Roy Dismont, Frederick S. Furbert, JP, Hilton G. Hill II, MBE, Alfred L. Hinson, Dr. Charles A. Smith, Dr. Thomas C. Stowe MBE and Winton Williams.

?The newly-organised chapter wasted little time getting on with the community service projects which were required of all members.

The fraternity?s aims of ?Manly Deeds, Scholarship and Love of All Mankind? are practised and upheld by the local chapter,? said Mr. Rabain.

?We concentrate on a specific demographic that is often overlooked and viewed as troublesome ? young males. Our programmes are specifically aimed at the mentoring, educating and general uplift of this segment our society. We have designed and continue to operate several programmes that address their needs.

?We like to get them before they get into school exams, not after.?

The president said that he was introduced to the fraternity in university, but did not become a member until after he had graduated from university and returned to Bermuda, which was about five years ago.

?My personal experience with it is an extension of my involvement in the community,? he said.

?One of our programmes is with Big Brothers and Big Sisters and we help to facilitate matches with the unmatched Littles. We also involve them in the stuff that we do, most recently we held a soccer camp ? we just try to do fun things with them.?

The fraternity also runs the Alpha Mental Maths mentoring programme at Dellwood Middle School.

?We take these young men and teach them maths techniques ? not the traditional ones ? but on what they used to think were complex mathematical problems,? explained Mr. Rabain.

?We keep them afterschool and part of it is to trick them into being mental by doing it in a competition format and, if they get something correct, then they get privileges.

?But it is also to expose them to successful men, because a lot of these guys, have fathers, but don?t have fathers at home, so they don?t have a role model that they can look up to.

?But we get to talk to them and discuss light problems. We also provide pizza. Also at the end of the term they have an assembly where they can display their mathematical skills and we give away prizes. We have given away everything from iPods to X-Box?s, gift certificates to bookstores. One year we even sent one of them to Space Camp.

?Most of our programmes are funded by donations as well as our brother?s dues.?

In the senior schools, the fraternity runs the Alpha Beautillion mentoring programme.

?We ask each school to enter one senior and we mentor these young men from January to June,? he said.

?They have to work at a rest home, they have to attend our events, we also give them an opportunity at Orbis Investment Management and they go there and learn interviewing skills.

?On the night of the actual event they have to display their oratorical skills, and they are judged by a panel of independent judges.

?They receive prizes, one of which is $5,000 for post-secondary education, second place $3,000 and third $2,000 respectively. In addition to that we ship them off to New York to the Fraternity?s Leadership Development Institute.

?We go there for a week and they get to interact with boys from all around the US. They get taught things that they would never get taught in Bermuda like business etiquette, parliamentary procedure and conflict resolution. So we view it as a rite of passage, because we are taking these kids from young boys and we are teaching them things that men must do.

?One of the things that we try to push on them is that one, they are never going to have enough time or resources to do all the things they want to do, but they have to figure it out. It?s not about throwing their hands up in the air and closing their eyes and hoping it disappears, which we see so much of, or that mom or dad will swoop in and do your work and figure it out.? Another one of its programmes is the Project Alpha, which is a male focused sex awareness programme.

?It is a pregnancy prevention programme, Mr. Rabain said. ?We understand that a lot of these kids are out there doing what they are doing and this is a national programme.

?There is a video that we show and we go to different high schools and middle schools. After we have an open and frank discussion about responsible sexual behaviour. This is just for the boys and you?d be surprised at some of the questions that they come up with.

?The aim is to get them to a comfortable state... and some of the things they ask you just blows your mind. But we are happy, because at least they are asking and we can give them the answers that they really need to have.

?If you are going to engage in sex, than this is how to be responsible.?

All of the education programmes are aimed at how to get into and stay college.

?We encourage them to stay in school,? he said.

?We are one of the chapters in the Eastern Region and we are often recognised for implementing every programme that we can. I think that in smaller environment like this, you see it more and you can?t particularly turn a blind eye to it, because it is in your face.

?You either have to do something or watch these kids just fall down and all of us have made a commitment and we can?t do that.?

The local chapter is made up of 50-odd men.

?One of our new recent members is Senator Wayne Caines,? noted Mr. Rabain. ?Also Bermuda College president Dr. Charles Green, Speaker of the House Stanley Lowe, and we have nondescript members, like small business owners.

?But what we find with all of the brothers, we find the same trait, and that is about uplifting our community.?

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the Fraternity and the ideas from then still persist today.

?We are always there for each other. We are only as strong as the weakest guy and we keep that in mind all the time.?