Portrait of Desrey Fox unveiled outside UG Campus
MINISTER of Human Services and Social Security,  Ms. Priya  Manickchand unveiled a portrait of late Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox, outside the University of Guyana (UG) Turkeyen Campus yesterday, on International Women’s Day.
Fox, from the  Akawaio tribe and born in Waramadong, was a teacher, cultural activist, mother, academic anthropologist and politician.
Among those present at the unveiling were Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Carolyn Rodriques-Birkett; Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Mr. Robeson Benn; singers from ‘Circle of love’, members of Fox’s family, including her sister, Ms. Yvette Bess; employees of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, students of Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and Mr. Al Creighton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UG.
Rodrigues-Birkett said UG was the place where Fox spent most of her career and she was a person of good character and personality, a research assistant of the Amerindian Research Unit who, after studying sociology, became its Coordinator.
Creighton mentioned that Fox also lectured courses such as Cultural Activism and Academic Anthropology, was very interested in culture and played a great part in theatre performances at all the levels, including the community.
He said she had great potential in Amerindian Studies and women affairs, advocated for women’s rights and had much unrealised.
Benn remembered Fox as a phenomenal woman who worked hard and struggled in the development of Guyana before the group she loved, ‘Circle of love’ sang a song in tribute to her.
Bess, Fox’s youngest sister, expressed heartfelt warmness and gratitude to the Government of Guyana and all those who took time to honour her dead sibling.
She said she is grateful that the deceased is not forgotten even though she is not alive and encouraged other women to follow the footsteps of the late minister.
“Whatever goals you want to achieve in life, just go for it,” Bess advised them.
Manickchand praised women who have, tangibly, paved the way for Guyana’s future development and said Fox was a symbol of great Guyanese women.
“We, as women, need to guard our gains and the efforts of those women who paved the way to develop Guyana’s future,” she said, challenging the female sex to make a positive change in improving current circumstances.