— members urged to work hard for success
DR. FAITH HARDING’s Quick Impact Programme (QIP) is beginning to bring quick-impact results to the Corentyne Coast residents of Alness and Albion, in East Berbice, Region 6; as well as to local and international investors. During her stopover at Alness Village last Sunday, Dr. Harding held a meeting with residents there to fine-tune preparations for cultivating several cash crops, and to engage in poultry and piggery. That visit followed her visit to the area two Sundays ago, when residents also expressed interest and willingness to start producing sorrel for the overseas market.

Overseas market
The Alness residents indicated to the QIP team that they had the land and the manpower, and all they needed was the motivation and moral support, along with some financial backing, to get the project off the ground.
Dr. Harding and her Quick Impact Team have since fulfilled the wishes of the residents, and Alness residents should be sowing their first set of sorrel seeds in three weeks’ time.
When Dr. Harding revisited the community on Sunday last, she told Alness residents that a company from Mexico was interested in purchasing the sorrel crop after it had been harvested and dried, and all they had to do was get all hands on deck in producing. Moreover, the National Agricultural Research Institute of Guyana (NARI) had already given commitment to dry the sorrel after it had been harvested. Should everything go according to plan, the groups should be shipping their first batch of sorrel off to Mexico by late November/mid-December 2012.
Meanwhile, the Quick Impact Team is presently in process of examining the best and most attractive form of packaging and labelling for shipping the dried sorrel.

Consolidation
Meanwhile, QIP member Patrick Harding encouraged the groups to ensure that their gains were consolidated in a manner that would see them being able to start smaller projects on their own within their communities. He told them that while the QIP team was going to play an active role in the initial stages of whatever projects the communities ventured into, the residents would be left to ensure that the projects were managed in a manner best suited to the interests of the communities and their residents.

Good work catching on
The Guyana Chronicle and its Editor-in-Chief, Mark Ramotar, came in for high praise from residents of Corriverton, Alness, and Albion for coverage of the works of the Faith Harding Quick Impact Programme in the respective communities. Residents are claiming that the articles on the works of the QIP team have been earning their communities positive reviews; and that several persons have been coming forward and expressing interest in assisting the communities in other ways.
Those sentiments were echoed by Dr. Faith Harding, who also admitted that the works of her organization have been receiving much attention from interested groups and companies, both locally and overseas, because of the coverage by the Guyana Chronicle. Those revelations were made on Sunday when Dr. Harding and her team travelled to the Corentyne Coast to check on the progress of works, when meetings were held with residents of Corriverton, Alness and Albion.
In the presence of the gathering, including the media, Dr. Harding expressed great appreciation to the Editor-in-Chief and the staff of the Guyana and Sunday Chronicle newspapers for seeing the importance of working with vulnerable groups and women, children and pensioners. She said that since the Guyana Chronicle started publishing the works of her organization, several companies, organizations and individuals have come forward with various forms of assistance for the community projects.
Bounty Farm Limited, Anthony Vieira, and the Beharry Group of Companies have already given forms of support to the organization, Dr. Harding disclosed.

Perseverance
In her feature address to the groups, Dr. Faith Harding encouraged the members to stay committed to the cause, as that could be the deciding factor in their communities being lifted out of poverty. However, she was somewhat disappointed at the pace at which the Corriverton group was executing work on a plot of land the community had identified for farming, which also had space for poultry and piggery activities.
In a visit to the area two Sundays ago, Dr. Harding was given assurance that the land would have been ready for a sod-turning exercise on Sunday, April 29, but that was not the case.
Residents blamed occasional showers for their inability to have the land properly prepared, but a visibly upset Dr. Harding cautioned the group that they needed to be more proactive, as that would encourage others to come on board and assist the community in other projects they may wish to embark on.
She reminded the community that they had invited her to help them start the project; and she encouraged the residents to work with timelines and keep deadlines, so that projects can be completed as scheduled, thereby making way for others to come on stream.
Also accompanying the Quick Impact Team on the Corentyne Coast was Director of the Mark Benschop Foundation, Mark Benschop. He encouraged the communities to work hard, and be productive in every sense and meaning of the word, so that other individuals and entities could be encouraged to offer them any help they desire.
He added that, in addition to the works of Dr Harding’s team, his foundation would be putting systems in place to have computer classes in all three of the communities along the Corentyne Coast.
The Quick Impact Programme has some seven groups around the country. Three are on the Corentyne Coast, and there are others on the East Coast of Demerara and on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. Once fully off the ground with their projects, Dr. Harding hopes to engage other communities in similar activities, and on an even larger scale.
The final Stop for the Day was in Albion, Corentyne, where the Quick Impact Team met with senior citizens and children. Albion is where Dr. Harding launched a Children’s’ Vegetable Garden earlier this year, and provided equipment for a playfield for the children.