TWENTY-nine Community Development Councils have been formed in Linden, Region 10, since commencement of the CDC programme in June 2015, and residents of Linden have welcomed the CDCs and are upbeat about the whole situation.The CDC is an initiative touted by the President, Brigadier David Granger, shortly after he had been inaugurated into office. Sandra Adams, Assistant Director of the Linden CDCs, has been spearheading the initiative since its commencement. She has worked with the different communities, and has reported their immense progress to the Ministry of the Presidency.

Outlying communities such as Kwakwani and Ituni are yet to benefit from this initiative, but the communities within Linden have embraced the initiative and are cooperating with CDC teams to fulfill the vision of developing Linden through the communities and to provide employment opportunities for young persons within the communities.

The Government is allowing persons within the communities to pilot their own development, which will be spearheaded by the Community Development Council and funded by the Board of Industrial Training.

According to Director Sandra Adams, Each community must embark on projects that will generate additional funding for further development and beautifying of itself.

It was revealed that the community of Kara Kara, through which the Kara Kara Creek runs, is presently in discussion with its CDC to transform the creek into a magnificent tourist attraction. Should this materialise, it would qualify that community to compete among communities for the title of most beautiful community in Linden. The community with the best theme and layout will win a sum of money to assist in a developmental project of their choice.

Residents of South Amelia’s Ward have expressed interest in establishing a supermarket that would generate funds for not only infrastructural development, but to assist the elderly, the infirm, single parents and unemployed persons within their community. “We do not want (an) ordinary supermarket; it must be a market that will supply packaged local produce to the quality of what is produced overseas,” posited the CDC representative of South Amelia’s Ward.

Other communities are embarking on establishing daycare centres and poultry farms, besides training persons — especially single mothers and unemployed women — in skills such as sewing, knitting and catering.

Discussions with investors who have displayed interest in establishing an oil refinery in Linden are reportedly ongoing. The CDCs are anticipating a successful outcome of those discussions, and are training their young people in order to prepare them for employment whenever the situation materialises.

The Board of Industrial Training has commenced training of young persons in the field of entrepreneurship, and upon completion of the training, will provide the trainees with a monetary grant to begin operating their own businesses.

Even though the Government has not been successful in tackling the unemployment situation in the region holistically, it has managed, through the CDC programme, to establish small pockets of jobs in the interim, thus attempting to fulfill its manifesto promise to provide jobs. Among those jobs provided is resumption of the DNI programme, in which members of the community engage in cleaning streets and cleaning shoulders of the Linden Soesdyke-Highway.

By Vanessa Braithwaite