RESIDENTS of the remote North West District community of Baramita, in Region One (Barima/Waini) are pressing ahead with plans to improve education in the area with the construction of a dormitory for students and a multi-purpose centre and playground. Baramita lies about 20 miles west of Matthews Ridge at an altitude of 99 metres (328 feet), and is close to the Guyana /Venezuela border. The community consists of roughly seventeen hundred residents living in seventeen settlements located on titled lands. Baramita is the second largest titled Amerindian community in Guyana; the largest is Masakinari (formerly Konashen), home of the Wai-Wais.
As of 2005, Baramita could be easily reached only by air, but a road is planned to link it with Matthew’s Ridge.
The Village Council of this gold-producing area derives revenue from the payment of royalties by persons allowed to mine the titled lands.
An advisor to the Village Council, Mr Virgil Perreira, who was formerly Manager of the Amerindian Hostel in Georgetown, has said that illiteracy is a major issue among the residents of the mainly Carib community. He said the village is suffering because most of the residents are not educated.
The village currently has a primary school, and with construction of the dormitory to accommodate pupils from outlying villages, the Council plans to get more pupils enrolled.
PUPILS of the Baramita Primary School recently benefited from a trip to Georgetown and other areas on the coast sponsored by the Russian company, Consolidated North West Resources Inc.
The pupils were first-time visitors to the coastland, and they were taken on tours to places of interest, including the offices of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
The Village Council has almost completed negotiating with the foreign-owned Consolidated North West Resources Incorporated for that company to carry out exploration and mining for minerals, including gold, on a plot of about 50,000 acres owned by the community. The Council is in the process of receiving legal advice, and hopes to seal a deal with the company by mid next month, Perreira said. Members of the Council had agreed that education will be given priority in any expenditure of the anticipated royalties.
The playground and multi-purpose centre, it is hoped, would help the Council to channel the energies of the community’s youths into more positive activities, such as sports and culture, in lieu of anti-social activities such as liming and consumption of alcohol, he said.