— youths have easier access to Internet, education and skills training

By Naomi Marshall
The youths of Coomacka Village, Region 10, will no longer have to travel long distances to access Internet cafes, thanks to Food for the Poor.

On Saturday, Food for the Poor commissioned the Coomacka Resource Centre, which seeks to enhance the academic performance of students and young adults in Coomacka by giving them access to educational and skills training resources.

The Coomacka Resource Centre is a one-story concrete building (30ft x 30ft) and consists of a library, water trestle, sanitation facilities, desktop computers, a 32” television set, sewing machines and information technology corner, among other things.

Chief Executive Officer of Food for the Poor (Guyana), Kent Vincent in his opening remarks, said community developments can come in many forms, but the present focus of Food for the Poor’s Community Development Project is on education and skills training, especially for youths.

“With this project we expect that the overall performance of students will improve, as they will have better access to learning resources, including the computers…. This project we expect to have a positive impact on income of families as they will no longer have to travel to Linden for their reading and other learning resources,” Vincent said.

Coomacka Mines Community Development Council (CDC) Chairman, Dexter Harding welcomed the initiative, noting that it will ease the stress of the youths of Coomacka from having to travel to Linden.

“This project would offset our young people, the girls and boys from going into the centre of the town, they are exposed to different sort of abuse. They’re going to be right home, they’re going to be comfortable and they will be away from all the abuse and so on,” he explained.

He encouraged Food for the Poor and government officials to support Coomacka, since it is a central community between numerous villages.
“This facility or many other project will benefit not only Coomacka, will benefit the three other surrounding communities also. So supporting Coomacka is supporting the mines,” he noted.

Harding was also the contractor assigned to the project. The blocks of the building were made by people of Coomacka and every part of the building construction was done by young people of the Coomacka community.
Chairman of Food for the Poor Guyana, Paul Chan-A-Sue noted that Food for the Poor hopes that with the community centre, the residents will further strengthen their values, culture and ways of expressing themselves.

KEY PART
“The library is a very key part of what we hope to happen here in Coomacka, that is, that children have to start reading. The level of literacy in Guyana is very low and it’s amazing to me how many people I come across these days, young people, who are unable to read and write.”

Chan-A-Sue is also a part of the Rotary Club in Georgetown and with the help of the Rotary Club in Virginia, helped to setup the water system for the Coomacka Community Centre.
After requesting that all the children gather at the front of the building, Brinaire Jean, Project Manager of Food for the Poor Inc. said, “this is the reason behind this building, this is the reason why this building is here today. This building is not for the grownups, it’s not for the adults, it is for the kids.”

Jean, who spoke on behalf of Desirae, a former resident of the Coomacka Village, noted that Desirae has done many projects at Food for the Poor; however, this one meant the most to her because it is for the benefit of her hometown.

He described Desirae as a person who loves family values.
According to Jean, Desirae raised funds on her own to be able to do the project, but unfortunately she was not able to make it to the commissioning of the centre.

FOR THE YOUTHS
“The kids, this building is for you, this is someone who came from this community that didn’t have anything who wanted to put something together so you guys didn’t have to go to Linden or you guys didn’t have to go to the next community,” he explained.
Jean encouraged the youths to respect their elder and pursue their education as they are the future of tomorrow.

“Don’t listen to anyone telling you ‘you can’t be anything in life’. I’m looking at you guys and I see doctors, I see lawyers, I see teachers, I see presidents, I see council men, I see leaders among yourself today,” he said.
Food for the Poor (Guyana) Director, Nezam Zaman, said the building is the means for success of the residents of Coomacka.

“We don’t want to see knowledge in this building, we want to see it outside; we don’t want to see sewing machines at that time in the building, but we want to see you establishing garment factories on the outside… We want to see the building reflect with you on the outside with the progress of this community,” he added.

Andrea Benjamin, who is a worker of Food for the Poor (Guyana) in closing remarks, thanked everyone that made the community centre a reality.

Jemimah Hall, who is a resident of the Old England Village, praised the new initiative.
“This is a very good initiative for the children. I see it beneficial because we use to got to go so far to get Internet. It’s a really positive initiative I see coming out of this.”