–vehicle bought with funds from Presidential Grant
AMERINDIAN Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai last Tuesday handed over a spanking new Toyota 15-seater bus to the St. Dennys Mission at Tapakuma in Region 2 (Pomeroon/Supenaam). Valued at $3.3 million, the vehicle was presented to the community Toshao, Doreen Jacobis, erstwhile Chairperson of the Indigenous People’s Commission, during a simple ceremony witnessed by Permanent Secretary, Nigel Dharamlall and Project Officer, Kalini Ali, among others present for the occasion held in the compound of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.
Minister Sukhai, in brief remarks, said she was pleased to hand over the vehicle, acquired under the Presidential Grant for the period 2009/2011, to St. Denny’s Mission, a titled Amerindian community located aback of Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast. She said the community of St. Dennys will contribute $300,000 towards the cost of the vehicle, which is intended to benefit residents in diverse ways.
Primarily, the bus is intended to shuttle school children to and from the Mission to Anna Regina Secondary School and the Essequibo Technical Institute, and provide transportation for senior citizens who experience great inconvenience trying to access public transportation. The vehicle will also facilitate farm-to-market transportation needs of the community’s farmers.
With a population of some 490 persons, St. Dennys economic mainstay is farming, logging and food processing.
A  Project Management Committee is to be set up to oversee the efficient use of the vehicle, and to ensure sustainability of the project it is intended to serve.
Minister Sukhai disclosed that for the year so far, the sum of $7.1 million has been spent in grant funding to assist the land transportation needs of four Amerindian communities, namely:  Sand Creek in Region 9; Kamwatta in Region 1; Mainstay in Region 2; and now St. Dennys Mission, also in Region 2.
Toshao Doreen Jacobis could not contain her excitement at receiving the vehicle. She expressed profound gratitude to the minister and the Government of Guyana for making life easier for the community, and was also high in praise of former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who had started the Presidential Grant.
Jaccobis said, “I am excited! We (the community) have never owned a bus!” She said that in order for the children of the mission to arrive on time for the start of school at 08:30 hrs, they have to leave home on foot as early as 06:30hrs.