By Shirley Thomas

A GLOBAL empowerment network which seeks to get Guyanese women around the world together to boost employment and enterprise will be officially launched at Herdmanston House on Thursday at 18:15 hrs.

Registered under the name “Women of Kaieteur”, this initiative, born of the need to do more to progress gender equality in Guyana, was engineered by a group of successful Guyanese women, with the involvement of men now living abroad who would have made their mark as professionals of substance.

The initiative was birthed about one year ago when a few passionate Guyanese women and men living in the United Kingdom started a series of conversations aimed at developing a vehicle to effect change in Guyana and beyond.

The organization, “Women of Kaieteur”, will be launched by change agents Ms Roianne Nedd, Chairperson, who resides in the United Kingdom; and Board Member Ms Amanda Wilson, currently living in Switzerland. They are both in Guyana for this purpose.

Nedd is a Chartered Accountant and Gender Specialist with the UK Government. She has been involved in Gender Policy for the last 10 years. She currently works with one of the Prince of Wales’ Charities on Gender.

Amanda Wilson is a young and tenacious documentary film-maker with strong Guyanese roots. She is among the new breed of independent film-makers seeking to inspire and inform their audiences by recording the cultural memories and legends of the Caribbean before those stories fade into obscurity.

Now living in Switzerland, Amanda is the last of three children raised in Georgetown, Guyana. She has travelled the world as a print and TV journalist, having started
out as a reporter at the Guyana Chronicle, completed a short stint in the Virgin Islands, and has worked for radio, magazines, newspapers and television stations across the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa as an intrepid journalist, presenter, director, producer and editor.

A former Media Director for a UK media firm, with media associates including BBC, UK’s Channel 4 News, Sky News and Mail on Sunday newspaper, Amanda has spent much time in Africa as the editor of the bilingual (English and Spanish) newsmagazine Ceiba, which focused on developments in Central Africa and how decisions in the West impact the continent’s progress.

Amanda has also produced political and financial stories on African leaders, including Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe; Nigeria’s post controversial military President Ibrahim Babangida; and Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang. She now heads her own London-based media company, Green Mango Media.

Commenting on the objective of “Women of Kaieteur”, Chairperson Roianne Nedd said: “We want to create and build networks with Guyanese women across the globe, encouraging them to share their skills and experiences to positively impact and unlock the potential of women and girls in Guyana.

“We are aware of some of the issues in Guyana, such as gender disparities, domestic violence, depression, suicide — that all impact women negatively.”

To this end, she said, the network is of the view that improved opportunities and outcomes for women have a positive impact on the economy and society as a whole.

“We believe that it isn’t just about the women. Therefore, we want to collaborate with and educate men about the importance of gender equality,” she said.

Meanwhile, Wilson, who sees the need for establishing a database that will give specifics on frequency of incidents that bedevil relationships, such as domestic violence, murder and rape of women, and suicide, said the network would also like to work with Government in this regard.

“We launch with a very clear concept that women are disadvantaged, and we want to collectively address that. We want to say it is time that we put data out there and try to drive policy change,” Wilson affirmed.

A special item on Thursday’s programme will be the honouring of women on whom will be conferred the “Women’s Empowerment Awards” in observance of Women’s History Month, which ends on March 31.