-explains land demarcation process
Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai and a team of officials, including from the  Ministry and the National Toshaos council (NTC), recently visited several remote communities in Region 7,including Arau, Paruima, Kamarang, Jawalla, Phillipai, Imbaimadai, Chinoweing and Wax Creek, where they engaged residents on pertinent issues regarding sustainable development and land demarcation. Minister Sukhai, during the various meetings, reiterated government’s commitment to substantially improving the social and economic development of Amerindians through increased access to social and other services being provided to all Guyanese.
The changing landscape of Amerindian communities, Minister Sukhai said, is testimony to the prudent management of the PPP/C administration and its people-centred approach.
“Some of the many features of development include the provision of educational and health facilities, the availability of potable water, road infrastructure, and access to information technology,” Minister Sukhai informed residents.
Amerindians today, Minister Sukhai said, are part of national development and have been benefiting from several initiatives aimed at bettering their lives.
These include annual presidential grants, school-feeding and uniform programmes, Hinterland Secure livelihood programme, community development plans and the unserved areas electrification programme, scholarship and hinterland road programmes, land demarcation, mid- wives’ training and the hinterland teachers’ upgrading programme.
Government, she said, has also implemented several new initiatives to improve and sustain the economic status of Amerindians.
She also used the opportunity to inform residents of the various villages on some of the successful outcomes of the recently concluded NTC meeting at Liliendaal, that was attended by over 270 Amerindian leaders, including toshaos, senior councillors and Community Development Officers.
“The NTC brought together leaders from titled and untitled villages, as well as settlements, so that leaders could have made representation on behalf of their villages,” Minister Sukhai informed residents.

Minister Sukhai, addressing the land demarcation and extension issue, said that villages that have been established outside of their titled lands can apply for those lands, following the specified guidelines in the Amerindian Act.
“If you want security for land, the law dictates that if your community is titled, then it must be demarcated; but the Government does not force any community to demarcate; the decision of demarcation has to come from the community level, authorising the council to apply for demarcation, since the principle of the PPP/C administration is based on free, prior and informed consent,” Minister Sukhai said.
The Amerindian Affairs Minister informed residents that after demarcation, the law also provides the opportunity for the village council to apply for extensions, providing sufficient and relevant justification is there.
“Extensions are usually additional portions of land requested by the communities, and not land as big as the community, for housing, economic and other ventures,” Minister Sukhai said.
Amerindian communities applying for land titles should have a population of more than 150 persons, and should have been in existence for more than 25 years.
She added that when the PPP/C Government took office, there were 74 titled Amerindian villages; and in less than 15 years, 96 villages were demarcated.

Presidential grants and financial support
Government has been issuing presidential grants to communities to create income generating activities, and while some communities are gradually developing, others have made significant progress.
During the NTC meeting, President Jagdeo indicated that the presidential grants for Amerindian communities, including those in Region Seven, will be increased from $320M to $500M for the period 2010 and 2011, an increase of more than 56 percent.

Decentralizing social services in Amerindian communities
The PPP/C Government, since taking office, has either established health posts or health centres in all hinterland communities, to provide for Amerindians’ health needs.
These facilties, she said, are no longer manned by coastlanders, but by Amerindians themselves who were provided the opportunity to be trained as Community Health Workers, Medex and Dentex.
“These facilities are not just the buildings with workers, but they have adequate supplies and equipment to carry out necessary testing and treatment,” Minister Sukhai said.
Complex cases, Minister Sukhai said, are transported to the city for further treatment and attention.
In education, more than 90 percent of the teachers in schools in hinterland regions are from their local communities, and over 50 percent of the hinterland students completing primary education can now have access to secondary and tertiary education, under the PPP/C Government.
Government’s school uniform and feeding programmes are allotted huge sums yearly to ensure all children benefit from these opportunities. All hinterland regions, including Region 7 benefit by way of uniform materials and hot meals or snacks.
“When the PPP/C Government came into office, there were only two secondary schools, at Mabaruma and St.Ignatius; and within the last 15 years in office, we added another eight secondary schools across the regions, with the latest one being at Sand Creek,” Minister Sukhai informed residents.
Today, there is an increasing number of Amerindians studying at the University of Guyana, the Government Technical Institute, and overseas, in various fields including medicine, agriculture and engineering.
Hinterland students attending secondary schools in Georgetown have increased over the past years, minister Sukhai said, and more students are being offered scholarships to study, since the commissioning of the hinterland scholarship students’ dorm at Liliendaal.
Water
The dependency on river and rainfall water in Amerindian communities is becoming a thing of the past, since many communities are now accessing potable water through the use of wind and solar power technology.
This intensified drive to afford Amerindian access to quality water saw government expending over $600M towards the improvement of water supply in the hinterland communities, over the past five years.
Recently, Riversview and Batavia, two communities in Region 7, benefited from a quantity of tanks for water storage.
Bartica has been benefitting from treated water for several years.
Other issues
Minister Sukhai also told the residents of initiatives that are on stream that will significantly impact their lives, such as the US$1M education learning channel that will eventually transmit all across the country, and the One Laptop Per Family Programme.
She explained that US$70M is sitting in an account at the World Bank, funds provided to the country for forest services, and that the NTC presented a resolution to President Jagdeo asking both Norway and Guyana to speed up the process so that the government can fund community development projects.

Promise to Wax Creek fulfilled
As a fulfillment of a promise made to Wax Creek, to reduce transportation difficulties, Minister Sukhai, during the outreach, handed over the keys of an all terrain vehicle (ATV) to the village’s Toshao. (GINA)