President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday enlightened laid-off Barama Company workers about several of Government’s support services which they can explore in their bid to find alternatives since the company retrenched 274 of them on October 15. 
Speaking to the workers at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), the President made reference to Government’s single parent assistance programme which provides loans of as much as $250,000 for single parents to start up a small business.
The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) has set aside $500M in the first instance to the new loan plan which will be offered to single parents between the ages of 18 and 60 years.
President Jagdeo told the workers of the successful outcome of the programme when it was extended to Buxton and ordered that a special brochure about the programme be made available to single parent workers of the company.
About 80 single parent women of Buxton got their loans processed following an information sharing exercise on the programme popularly known as the Women of Worth (WOW) single parent facility.
Among the other facilities mentioned were the various services such as school uniform distribution under the difficult circumstances Unit of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security with which the Education Ministry is now integrally involved.
The project, which includes the provision of a uniform to every school-aged child, is being funded at a cost of $500M with a mandate to ensure equal opportunity to education.
President Jagdeo, in his New Year’s message, had announced plans to have all students clothed through the government initiative. The aim is to boost school attendance, especially in rural, riverine and hinterland communities.
In the housing sector, the partnership between the Ministry of Housing and Water and the banking sector has made it possible for Guyanese to obtain a house lot at an affordable cost.
In June, over 600 Guyanese obtained house lots during a One-Stop-Shop exercise, and recently over 670 house lots were distributed to residents of Parfait Harmonie during a similar exercise where applicants were given the opportunity to select their house lots in the new scheme.
At the beginning of the year, President Jagdeo had tasked the Ministry of Housing to make 17,000 house lots ready for Guyanese and at the same time ensure that a better product of housing is delivered to people.
According to Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali, the initiative was another step forward in achieving the target of 20,000 house lots for Guyanese. (GINA)