– through community projects, technical programmes, says President Granger

PRESIDENT David Granger said unemployment is being reduced through the promotion of self-employment, pointing out that over 400 community projects are being financed to the tune of $3.7B under the Sustainable Livelihoods and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme.

“Most young people, if given the training and opportunity, want to work and we must help them with the training and with the resources and opportunities,” he said, noting that the emancipated spirit is not daunted since villages also benefited from these many opportunities.

He also noted that the government has been building capacity to get youths prepared for the world of work or, to empower them in becoming entrepreneurs through various channels such as technical and vocational institutes, as well as micro-financing programmes such as the Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS) and the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN).

The President was at the time speaking at the Cuffy 250 sixth annual ‘State of the African Guyanese’ forum on Sunday, held under the theme: “Positioning African Guyanese Villages and Communities for the Green State Economy”.

In an effort to sift out the problems stifling African village development, the programme was geared at equipping the villagers with the knowledge, skills and technical assistance needed in various enterprising and diversifying fields to empower themselves economically, but more so, in a way that will contribute significantly to Guyana’s Sustainable Development Strategy (GSDS).

Villages will then be self-empowered and self-emancipated through self-activity.
President Granger said villages are the cradles of culture and production of agriculture, which contributed significantly to Guyana’s development.
He said strides need to be taken to prevent the villages from being wiped out by urbanisation and that can only be done through empowerment.

DENIALISM
The President noted that one of the major factors dampening village development is denialism and encouraged villagers to admit problems, so as to prescribe solutions. Denialism, he said, is dangerous to progression.

“We should not allow the disease of denialism to undermine our self-esteem and self-respect, because that will obstruct us from searching and further implementing the right solutions. There are problems, we should not deny that they are problems because if we deny there are problems, we will never arrive at the correct solutions,” Granger noted.
One major problem is in the education sector since each year 2669 students drop out of school. Many were as a result of the unavailability of affordable transportation.
The government has stepped in to help, providing assistance through the Five Bs programme. Not only are hundreds of children going to school now, but millions of dollars are re-circulated into the household to finance other aspects of the children’s well-being.
Giving an overview of the GSDS was Eustace Alexander, who urged the villagers to position themselves in order to benefit from the many objectives that will be derived from its materialisation.

THREE PILLARS
GSDS is a combination of three main pillars: social, economic and environmental and to achieve same, the country cannot continue to be dependent on the extractive industries, but to seek out diversified avenues without jeopardising the environment. The villagers were told of the plethora of opportunities to utilise renewable energy in Guyana which will create green, resilient and sustainable towns.

The GSDS also focuses on creating a healthy, educated, social and cohesive society. There is need, he said, to strike a balance between social, economic and environmental development. He urged the villagers to pursue green jobs or low emission jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities and to even process non-traditional fruits such as coconut. Alexander related that the profits gained from oil production will finance the country’s transformation to a green state.

The highlight of the forum was the several workshop sessions which allowed the participants to have one-on-one discussions with experts, on how they can garner support in various fields of diversification.

These included food science/ agro-processing; cattle, small ruminants and swine; seafood and aqua culture and business organisational skills. In the field of cattle, small ruminants and swine, presenter Selwyn Anthony said that small ruminants are used around the world to develop villages, since the initial requirements for such an activity is very small. With Guyana importing over 10,000 lbs of small ruminants, there is therefore a demand and villages can flourish if they capitalise on the opportunity.

The participants also had an opportunity to mingle, share their concerns, challenges and visions faced within the African villages, and solutions were given to better position them in their return to develop those villages.