SIX OR so weeks ago, Donielle Douglas, a Public Health undergrad at the University of Guyana, was apprehensive about serving an internship in the gold mining areas of the hinterland.

A nurse by profession, Donielle, who lives at Bagotstown on the East Bank, was one of four female students who volunteered to carry out a study of sanitation practices in gold-mining camps at Mahdia and Micobie in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni).

Donielle Douglas at Mahdia.

She had never gone into the hinterland before.

“Before going, I thought it was just going to be just bush; a whole lot of trees… overgrown trees and some crude tarpaulin camps in between; a real rough and primitive life.”

After successfully completing her stint last week, she now has a different perspective on the matter: “It was nothing like that. In fact, it was a pretty good experience. We found out that there was electricity there, plus the Internet, and creature comforts such as television, DVD players, refrigerators, and others things that some people on the Coast cannot afford,” Donielle said, adding:

“Miners at Mahdia had cell-phone contact with their relatives on the Coast, something I never knew existed.”

All the while she was speaking, Mr Richard Couture, whose office, the Guyana Environmental Capacity Development Project (GENCAPD) had sponsored the internship, sat smiling away in the background.

Of the work of the miners and pork-knockers Donielle said: “It was like visiting a new world; I was privileged to see mining operations. We all wear gold, but few of us think about the amount of work that goes into it. Miners do a lot of work, invest a lot of time and a lot of energy. I and others got to understand the porkknocker; we grew to appreciate his life and role in the mining sector, and there was bonding.”

GENCAPD is a mining assistance programme for Guyana, which is funded by the Canadian Government through the Canadian Development Agency (CIDA) for organizing, in part, activities aimed at ensuring good health practices among miners and within mining communities.

The three other interns. They are, from left, Nikita, Rhonda and Georgel.

The Canadian Centre for Minerals and Energy Technology (CANMET), a division of Natural Resources Canada, which Couture works for, provides technical and management assistance for the programme.

The programme is being undertaken in conjunction with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).

The three other females on the sanitation in mining camps study were Rhonda Mitchell, a nurse, and Georgel Abrams and Nikita Wong, both of whom are studying Environmental Science at the university.

As Couture explained, one of the objectives of the CIDA-funded internship programme was to get the participants to develop an appreciation for the natural beauty of the hinterland.

“We wanted them to see that the hinterland was a nice and not necessarily dangerous place,” he said.

Said Donielle of the internship programme: “We sought to find out what the sanitation practices in mining camps were, and whether these practices were adversely affecting either the miners or the people in general.”

The team of young ladies interviewed ‘bahirs’ (camp cooks) and general managers (called GMs in the mining community) in 29 camps (26 at Mahdia and three at Micobie) and recorded their observations, and in some cases made recommendations on-the-spot.

A main outcome of the internship was a preliminary report done by Donielle on matters such as malaria prevention, food storage, water treatment and personal hygiene in the camps and containing recommendations.

She had the privilege of presenting the report to a meeting of a technical Committee comprising officials of the Ministry of Health, GGMC, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Local Government Ministry, GENCAPD, and the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA).

Couture, who is a member of the technical committee, said that members had been very impressed with the quality of her report.

Donielle accredited the success of the internship to Medexes in the Ministry of Health and GENCAPD staffer, Mr Wilton Benn who helped design the questionnaire and who encouraged and inspired her to take the trip into the unknown.

She said that malaria had not been a major cause for concern for the group, since they had been well equipped with insect repellent and nets for the duration of the project.

“It was a great adventure; the hinterland is memorable. The air is different: Clean, fresh. The mountains, the rivers, the creeks, the waterfalls make you really appreciate nature for what it is.”
Ms Douglas graduates from university next month.