MASAKENARI, one of the most remote villages in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), will soon have an enhanced level of health care services as two of its villagers will commence training in the Ministry of Health’s Community Health Workers (CHW) Programme. The course starts on Monday and will run for six months. It caters for approximately 40 persons from all of the country’s administrative regions.
At the last Toshao’s Conference at the Convention Centre, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, President Bharrat Jagdeo had accepted a request by Paul Chekema, Toshao of Masakenari, to have more health workers trained for the communities.
Following this, Chekema and the Village Council identified teenager Brian Mawasha to be trained as a health worker and Betsy Mawasha to be educated as a registered nurse in the village, which was formerly known as Gunns Strip and Konashen.
Chekema subsequently paid a courtesy call last Wednesday on Minister within the Ministry of Health, Bheri Ramsaran, at his office in Georgetown, to thank him for the personal interest he showed in following up on the recommendations of the Toshao’s conference. Brian Mowasha, who graduated from the Aishalton Secondary School and secured two passes in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examinations, accompanied Chekema on the visit to Dr Ramsaran’s office.
Twenty-seven years after the first health worker was trained in Masakenanri, the two Mowashas will be trained simultaneously.
Ramsaran welcomed the Toshao’s initiative and assured him that the Health Ministry will continue to take an active interest in Mawasha. He also promised to look into the possibility of having Mowasha engage in higher training.
In an invited comment, Minister Ramsaran told this newspaper that the Health Ministry’s training programmes will continue to prepare young Amerindians to take quality health care services to the remote locations across Guyana.
Once trained, the health workers will spend many years serving their communities, Ramsaran said, adding that they would do so for as much as 15 to 20 years. Persons on the Coastland areas were reluctant to be trained and go into these areas, he further commented.
According to him, trainees coming from remote areas are accommodated at a hostel in the West Demerara Regional Hospital compound and all their expenses are taken care of by the government.
Coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Communities, Ministry of Health, Patricia Singh, said the Ministry will soon be dispatching a special ophthalmology team to do screening for eye diseases.
Singh, who holds a BSC in nursing from the University of Guyana, has direct responsibility for liaison between Dr. Ramsaran’s office and health sector related activities in Amerindian communities.
Masakenari experienced difficulties following floods and was relocated under the guidance of Chekema, who is now heading the team that is repairing the roof of the Umana Yana.