FOUR miles away from the hustle and bustle, on the outskirt of central Bartica, lies a community where residents are no longer waiting around for jobs in the public sector; or even the mining industry for that matter.
In the Four Miles Housing Scheme, which is situated along the Potaro Road in the town of Bartica, residents are creating employment of their own, capitalising on other traditional and not-so-traditional fields, from agriculture to housing.

“Years ago, people in Bartica depended heavily on the mining sector. Many went into the ‘Interior’; others remained in the public sector, and others set up cook shops, hotels and even clothes stores, all suited for the mining industry,” Debra Brown said.
Brown, the constituency representative, posited that while many still depend heavily on the two primary sectors, the economy is gradually diversifying.
A case in point, she said, is communities like the Four Miles Housing Scheme where residents are turning more to agriculture, housing, tourism, social services and even the water industry to generate employment.
About seven years ago, Ramkumar Obindernauth’s 10 acres of land on the border of Four Miles Housing Scheme was merely demarcated with coconut trees. Today, it provides fresh fruits, ground provision and vegetables to the restaurants, hotels, the hospital and dormitory in Central Bartica.

FARM-FRESH
Obindernauth’s son, Sash, said approximately four years ago, his brother-in-law, Premnauth Soamnauth, a former Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) employee, began farming on the land.

When the Guyana Chronicle visited the farm, the trees were laden with fruits such as pears, mangoes, oranges, soursops, sugar apples, custard apples, cashews and coconuts just to name a few.
Pointing to what he described as a ‘medium- size’ soursop, Sash said that while that particular fruit had approximately 12 pounds, many of the soursops on the farm average about 20lbs.
In addition to fruits, Sash said his brother-in-law, who employs men from the neighborhood during harvesting time, plants a wide range of cash-crops. These include wiri-wiri pepper, tiger-teeth pepper, sweet potatoes, cassava, yam, squash, egg-plant, pumpkin, cucumber and bora among many other vegetable.
“We have a stall in the market at Bartica, but we sell to a lot of business places. We supply the Chinese restaurants, the Brazilians, the Hospital, and ‘The Dorms’,” Sash said.
“Every day, we provide them with fresh fruits and vegetables,” he added.
When the demand is high, or when buyers are demanding fruits and vegetables that are not readily available at a given time, Sash said they would purchase from other farmers in the neighbourhood.

WATER SHORTAGE
However, his brother-in-law, Soamnauth, who manages the farm, said the lack of water can be a real bother at times.

“The mix weather is good: A little rain; a little sun, that is good! But too much dry weather would dry up the crops, because we don’t get water behind here,” Soamnauth said.
He further explained that while those in the community proper are able to access water, those on the fringes of the scheme are unable to do so because of low pressure and leakages.
As a result, they are made to buy water, for as much as $8,000 a tank, whenever the need arises.
Forty-two-year-old Melissa Sue, whose husband is a farmer, said that while there is a lucrative market at Four Miles, her husband experiences similar difficulties with respect to access to water.
“My husband would mainly do the planting; right now, we have bora, pumpkin, squash, cucumber and tomato now coming up… And pepper,” Mrs Sue said as she walked through the family’s 12-acre plot of prime farmland with her children.
Like the Soamnauths, the Sues also have a wide variety of fruit trees. They sell to residents in the community. Including the Soamnauths!
On a light day, Mrs Sue said, she and her children would cook-out on the farm while enjoying the peace and tranquility of Four Miles Housing Scheme.

A short distance away from where the farming activities are taking shape, another industry is popping up in the community.
BOTTLED TO GO!
The father of two, Onesimus Griffith is now providing residents with purified bottled water.
“I started this business in January; it is a little investment I put into place, and it cost me like three million dollars,” Griffith told the Guyana Chronicle while standing outside his ‘Progressive Youth Crystallite Purified Water’ establishment.
Griffith’s vision of providing his community with purified water was born more than two years ago. “It just came to me like that more than two years ago,” the young entrepreneur said, adding:
“So I bought a ‘Canter’ and started selling water for people to bathe, and clean and farm.”
After generating sufficient money, he next bought a water purification system and had an expert install it. Now, he is providing residents with purified water from a nearby well.
“I recently purchased a PH tester to test the water,” he said, “and the test shows that the water is very good. People have been giving me reviews about the water and they say it tastes great.”
The budding entrepreneur also owns a radio system that provides calls to the ‘Interior’ at a small fee.
“People would come here and make calls, contact their families in the ‘Interior’, and I know how important that is,” Onesimus said.

CONCRETE IDEAS
A stone’s throw away from Griffith’s, 63-year-old Mr Desmond Stoby makes concrete blocks for a living. “When I came in here to live about eight years ago, I started making blocks, because a lot of people were building during that time,” Mr Stoby recalled.
Back then, he would make more than 300 concrete blocks per day, but business has slowed down of late, and as such he currently makes a little over 100 blocks per day.
“Two or three years ago, business became a little slow; only one-and-two people would come and order blocks,” he said.

He only makes six, four and three-inch blocks, but his neighbour, Ms Patricia ‘Dawn’ Hall, baby-sits some of the children in the community while building on her passion for the arts.
“I am a caregiver, but I love craft,” Ms Hall said, adding that she’d been helping her mother since a child with her differently abled sister. And now that their mother has died, it is she who is taking care of her sister.
“I can’t work as per normal, so while at home, I would baby-sit some children in the community until their parents get home from work,” she said.
But while she may enjoy taking care of the little ones, Hall says that deep inside she has a flair; a passion for craft.
“I don’t get to do as much craftwork as I want to because I have to babysit, but I am working on a collection for the Regatta,” she said.
Her collection of chair cushions will be on display during the Annual Easter Regatta in Central Bartica.
And while the residents of Four Miles Housing Scheme are satisfied with the paths they have chosen, it is their belief that the community could be further developed to include better roads with drains, and a play field for the children.
To date, the community boasts a health centre, two churches, and a newly-built nursery school that is soon to be opened.