ON the occasion of Mining Week 2015, women miners  are calling for  benefits available to  miners to be  equally shared between themselves and their male counterparts.In a message to mark the occasion, the Guyana Women Miner’s Organisation(GWMO says: “Mining has become what it is today because of the women and men who take the physical and financial risk to advance the sector here in Guyana.
“Women like Ms. Joanne Williams, who has weathered the storms of mining for nearly 30 years, progressing from small to medium scale mining; Ms. Paulette Leone of Mahdia, who has battled her way as a pork-knocker for over twenty years; Ms. Gertrude Peters, who is a miner and landowner for over two decades; and Ms. Donna Charles, who is one of two women who own their own large-scale mining operation.
“We take pride in their accolades, which was not given but earned.  These women have earned the respect, fought the tides of male patriarchy and countered the numerous challenges of mining; which includes, bullying by land owners, a stringent banking system that is reluctant to serve miners, poor security in the interior and land discrepancies at the GGMC.
“Their stories are not isolated, but echo throughout the tales of women in the industry.

“To the young women in mining, be encouraged that others have laid the foundation for you to continue to strive. We are well aware that mining builds you up and can break you down at a flash, the key to surviving the fall is diversification.

“Invest in other businesses that will be able to keep a roof over your head when the storms of mining come, and trust us, they do come.

“Carry yourself with respect and dignity as not every woman that journeys into the interior seeks an ‘easy living’, but the vast majority of us have laboured long hours to acquire what we have and that stigma is not a welcomed one.

“In the near future, we look forward to large scale and international mining companies leaving more than traces of their genealogy behind when leaving a community, but instead honouring their corporate social responsibility obligation to improve and support programs, assisting to develop the social infrastructure that affect women and men in the mining industry.

“Communities such as Port Kaituma are often far removed from assistance by the administrators which is in dire need of better roads, so the journey to school doesn’t require off road vehicles and long boots.

“There are children within similar communities such as Mabura that are unable to complete a secondary school education because lack of teachers at the secondary school in that community, in addition there are no trade schools within these outlying areas.  Healthcare within these outlying interior communities needs improvement at all cost since the distance to Georgetown can be fatal for lack of immediate healthcare.

“Every investor bearing the financial burden of mineral exploration, every worker trusting a stranger who promises a job and a promising wage in an area that your family have never heard of and cannot find, every shop owner deciding to provide goods and services through dangerous conditions; mining week serves to remind all of us that our work is essential to our economy, so much so that we are commemorated with a weekly observance, but we should also be respected in the fields and the benefits  available for miners should be equally shared.”