THE Ministry of the Presidency will be providing 13 scholarships to youths in and around the community of Karasabai, following an interaction between Minister of State Joseph Harmon and 23-year-old village representative, Marlon Edwards.

Harmon was visiting residents in the Lethem town in Region 9 (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region) on Sunday evening, when Edwards spoke with him about the challenges of his community.

For some time, the young man has been advocating for the development of Karasabai which has already begun to benefit in the areas of infrastructure, electricity and agriculture through his petitions to the government.

On Monday, updating this newspaper on the most recent accomplishment, he said: “I approached him and I asked for a little private discussion and we had that discussion. It is the first time I’m meeting him and we all know that he’s an influential person; he can get things done.”

Edwards, along with another young man, Seon Kartright, had travelled from their village to get the opportunity to meet with the minister who they heard would be in the region.

The pledged scholarships will allow the youths to attend government institutions such as the Government Technical Institute (GTI); Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) and the University of Guyana (UG).

So far, there are two other students from the village currently studying in Georgetown through government scholarships. Apart from the intervention of the current administration, Edwards said that education assistance to the village was previously overlooked.

“It’s a big plus because in the past we haven’t been benefitting from any government scholarships. There would be scholarships available but because we are so far away from the city, and from Lethem, we wouldn’t know about these things,” he said.

“It is my intention to see more of our young people, especially indigenous youths, benefitting from government scholarships. I’ve been working tirelessly to ensure that happens.”

Edwards explained that the 13 youths he advocated for, will be selected based on their qualifications, along with the criteria of having Math, English and any other subject in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.

He said at present there are a number of youths in the village who have recently graduated from secondary school, and looking for jobs and to further their studies. Edwards’ account was shared by Kartright who stated that, with limited access to higher education, many youths are being enticed to relocate to neighbouring Brazil.

As such, Kartright and others are working to regain the attention of the youths in the area through sports initiatives and small youth groups.

“Most of the youths who have been leaving school are being influenced towards Brazil. Everybody wants to go to Brazil, so that is why we try to keep them occupied and have them be involved in community activities,” he added.

Harmon has also agreed to assist the village with its peanut farming project, through the provision of barbwires for fencing and pipes for irrigation.

The minister has also promised to look into having new batteries acquired to power the solar panel system at the Karasabai Primary School, which has been without such for some six years.

“Now that we got to know the minister, I think that things will improve in the area of youth empowerment because the minister seems to be passionate also about youth empowerment,” Edwards said.

Meanwhile Kartright added: “The scholarships, those were one of the things we were looking at and we do have students that have already left school and are just there…so the minister spoke with us and he gave us his full support on that. We are still befitting and we continue to give our full support to the Government and we hope they can assist further. ”