Food for the Poor among GOA’s awardees for 2010

….GOA’s head says 2010 a success
FOOD for the Poor one of Guyana’s leading NGO was among the recipients at last Saturday night’s annual Awards –Dinner of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) held at the Georgetown Club.
The special award presented by the GOA was for the International Olympic Congress (IOC) Trophy in recognition of inspiring Young people/Organisations to create avenues for youths to be involved in meaningful activities.
The annual event which was inaugurated in 1997 was the 15th hosted by the GOA and among the gathering were the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony, Guest Speaker Dr. Ian Mc David and several members of the Diplomatic Corps.

This year’s awardees for valuable contributions to the respective sport included veteran starter of Guyana’s Car and Motorcycle Races, Pat Holder who was honoured in the general category.
Former National and Caribbean Rugby captain Colonel (retired) John Lewis was also honoured as well as Grace McAlmont for Lawn Tennis, Denis Dias for Squash and Randolph Roberts for Cycling. GOA’s Council Member Charles Corbin who was unavoidably absent was voted ‘Council Member of the Year’.
President of the GOA, K Juman Yassin in his presentation told the audience that the year 2010 was a success, “Sports as far as the GOA is concerned for 2010- has been rather successful. We participated in three International Games and in all the Games we were able to come out with medals.”
The GOA boss also complimented the Medal winners and the respective Chefs of Mission who in his estimation all did excellent jobs.

Yassin also announced the selected Chefs of Mission for this year’s Games and the London 2012 Olympics. Gowkarran Ramdhani will head the delegation to the Youth Games in the UK while Noel Adonis will do likewise for the PanAm Games in Mexico, and for next year’s Olympics Dr Karen Pilgrim will be in charge.
President Yassin also lauded the affiliates of the GOA and stressed the importance of accountability, “I wish to thank all the affiliates of the GOA.
I thank them for their cooperation and all the good things that they have done over the years. I can say that since I have become President that we have never had any problems with regards to our affiliates and the Executive of the GOA.
Each affiliate has been excellent. I want to remind each affiliate, and I see a lot of Presidents, that whenever you receive funding and or donations that there must be proper accountability because only in these circumstances would you be able to encourage your sponsors to continue to give.”
The GOA boss also took a swipe at the sport of cricket, “Cricket is our national sport and what has been happening is really a disgrace.

Not only to those involved but to the administrators and Guyana as a whole.
Unfortunately there are too much court cases out and for Demerara Board there are two, so when you come to the Guyana Cricket Board’s elections the big question is which one will vote to be recognised. This embarrassing situation has gone too far.
We need to have it corrected. The only thing I see in short term is for President Jagdeo to take this whole problem in hand. He needs to call the two parties to the table and let them know that this nonsense must stop.
We cannot continue to have two boards.”  Yassin also apologized for the disappearance of three amateur boxers while in transit in New York last year, “What the boxers did was unexpected and we are very very much ashamed and embarrassed”.
Also addressing the Awardees and gathering was the  Minister of Sport, Dr Frank Anthony  who expounded on Government’s support for the development of Sports in the country, citing the national Stadium, the Olympic Size Swimming Pool, the Synthetic Athletic Track, resurfacing of the national Park for cycling, Squash Courts and Tennis Centre as meaningful development.
“I make no apologies for putting Government’s monies into the schools’ system and into the communities. We have to invest in the schools and the communities and that is what we have been doing over the last years.
So, if we don’t have enough money to send teams abroad that is because we are investing the monies in the schools and in the communities. This year $200m will be spent on fixing various community grounds. Let’s work together.
If we do this in the spirit of cooperation then I am confident we can fix some of the ills that are affecting us.’
“For too long we have been trivializing sports. We treat it like a recreational thing and do not have any strong development programmes and that is why it has not developed.”
“The work and achievements of the GOA over the last year we are pleased with, and we will continue to work with the GOA and all sports organizations in the development of sports in Guyana.”
Last Saturday’s Awards-Dinner was also addressed by Dr Ian McDonald AA who sincerely congratulated the recipients and praised the efforts of the GOA while also expressing his disappointment at the state of cricket with the current court issue.

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