RESIDENTS of the Eccles Housing Scheme on the East Bank Demerara carried out a clean-up exercise on Sunday, in an effort to beautify the environment and make the scheme a benchmark community. According to Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, a resident of the scheme, the annual activity is facilitated through the collaborative efforts of the PPP Group, the Community Development Council (CDC) the Policing Group and the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), to carry out the clean-up campaign in the Block ‘AA’, ‘BB’, and ‘CC’ areas at Eccles.
He explained, “It has been 10 years now since the scheme opened up and this exercise has been running that long. We always get the cooperation from the residents and we want to encourage more communities to get out and to conduct similar such activities more often.”
Nadir noted too that the Eccles Community Group also organizes other activities during the year in an effort to foster community cohesiveness.
As to the impact of such an activity, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament Mr. Neil Kumar pointed out that the important aspect of the activity is the collaborative effort being made to ensure the success of the project.
“We have over 150 persons cleaning up the community but what is important is the coming together of the different groups to do this annually,” he said.
Kumar highlighted that similar such projects are also carried out in other communities along the East Bank corridor.
Meanwhile, Overseer of the Eccles/Ramsburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Mr. David Sugrim said this is not the first time that the NDC and community members have come together to implement such activities.
In light of this, he expressed the hope that other communities will emulate the actions of the residents of the Eccles Housing Scheme as they strive to beautify and enhance their community, with the aim of creating a model scheme.
Sugrim explained, “We are trying to get all of the other villages to come together to do the same and we have had great results from such exercises in Republic Park where they conducted a similar such exercise and raised funds to fix their roads.”
The Overseer lauded the efforts of the participants of the exercise, especially the Government Ministers who participate in the activity every year.
“I am happy to see the ministers coming out to lend their support so that people can see that their leaders are participating in such events,” he stated.
Scores of residents came out to participate in the annual event and they all noted that the activity is in keeping with the aim of enhancing their community.
“This has developed into a nice community and we try to get everybody involved,” posited the Secretary of the Eccles Community Group, Mr. Sean Richmond.