Women Miners Organisation report positive results from outreach
THE recent outreach to Bartica and Itaballi, organised by the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), has already started to yield positive results, with Government promising to resolve some of the issues that were highlighted on those visits. Women miners at these locations in Region 7 (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), called on Government to provide them with more land for mining, so as to avoid being exploited by who they described as the heavyweights in the industry.
The current situation is of such that, once the women ‘hit gold’, a term loosely used in the business, the large scale landowners, for whom they work, terminate their contracts without offering them any form of compensation.
However, President of GWMO, Ms. Simona Broomes told the Guyana Chronicle, last Friday, that her grouping has since found a solution to the land issue.
She said Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Mr. Robert Persaud, after their visits, met with and agreed to work with them on this matter.
Hence, Broomes said the organisation is looking at maps to locate a block or an area where the women can work and not be faced with the land problem over and over, again.
During a meeting at the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Bartica Office, woman miner Judy David explained that small miners have to pay to work on lands owned by big miners and, often, they are not given maiden plots to explore.
And, although they pay major parts of their earnings to proprietors, they also have to contend with rangers who seek to line their pockets, as well.
She said, sometimes, land owners agree for miners to work without any documents and the rangers, being aware of this, try to exploit the situation by demanding money from the women.
Broomes said the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Act does not provide for people who do not own land and, although the legislation was amended, it is still before Prime Minister Samuel Hinds for his signature.

PROSTITUTING THEMSELVES
Commenting on young women prostituting themselves at Itaballi Landing, she said she spoke with Minister Persaud, as well as Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Jennifer Webster about the practice.
Broomes said during the recent visit, a number of women miners from Bartica heard how many of the young women at Itaballi feel they have no alternative but to sell their bodies to earn a living.
Daring allegations were made by one 67-year-old woman who said that she often sees girls as young as 12, 15 and 16 years old drinking, dancing and smoking at nights.
The sexagenarian even alleged, in front of National Communications Network (NCN) cameras, that policemen, who are supposed to be protecting the young women, are, themselves, involved sexually with them.
Following that interview, Broomes said she and some of her colleagues paid a visit to a 14-year-old girl and several other young women in a house. The girl told Broomes that her mother died when she was just 10 years old and that it is her ‘gentleman’ who is currently taking care of her.
“From a tender age, she is very loose and she told us that her gentleman is caring for her because that’s the only means of her surviving. It was so sad to see her in a position where she feels that she has to give her body to someone so that she will get some food. She needs a home, some sort of structuring. She needs to learn not to abuse herself and view herself as just a sex tool out there,” Broomes said.
She said, when Minister Persaud heard about the 14-year-old, he, immediately, organised a team and asked GWMO to go back to the area to identify and remove her from those circumstances.
The GWMO agreed to go back with officers from the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, representatives of Minister Persaud’s ministry, the Child Care and Protection Agency and the Police.
But, by the time the officers arrived at Itaballi, word had already gotten around that they were there to find and take away the 14-year-old and the teen was, therefore, hidden.
However, GWMO officers were determined not to leave without the child and a diligent search helped them find and take her away.
Broomes said she is pleased to have more women joining the GWMO and said, because it is working with its own expenses, donations are welcome from any person or institution.