THE Diaspora is playing a very important role to the country’s development, and the Government has recognised this so much so that President Donald Ramotar and two senior ministers addressed the Guyanese community in California and South Florida during the past few days.

In California, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh told a large gathering that the PPP/C Government is appreciative of their assistance to their relatives and friends at home, and in Florida the President and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, expressed their thanks to the diaspora, which turned out in large numbers at Miramar.
Members of the Diaspora, besides sending regular remittances to relatives and friends in Guyana, also send books, computers and other forms of assistance to the primary and secondary schools they attended in Guyana.
A few offer scholarships to students in Guyana. Recently, businessman Brian Ramphal who hails from Kitty, Georgetown and now resides in California decided to give back to his community and offered two scholarships to students of his alma mater, St. Stanislaus College, with recipients being Omefia Garraway and Oral Mc Alister to study at the University of Guyana.
Ramphal is known to be very generous and in several instances contributed to disaster relief funds, personal tragedy victims, US Armed Services personnel, Universities and his alma mater.
The Guyana Government has planned to work in collaboration with the Diaspora through the numerous Guyanese Associations in several cities and towns in the United States, mainly in New York, Florida, California, Atlanta, as well as a few in the Caribbean islands.
OSCAR RAMJEET