– network aims to provide assistance to ‘underserved’ migrant communities in Region One

THE Migrant Support Network of Guyana, a recently formed not-for-profit group of young professionals, has set out to help underserved migrants who came to Guyana from Venezuela.

It began with reports carried in the media, of migrants who were trickling through Guyana’s north-western borders from Venezuela. Guyana’s neighbour has been experiencing significant socio-economic and political crises for the past eight years and this has caused citizens to flee the country.

The figures started small, but the most recent figures provided by Director General (ag) of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant-Colonel Kester Craig, pegs the number at 2,588.

For Derwayne Wills and 16 other young professionals who are directly involved in the Migrant Support Network, this constitutes a situation which calls for humanitarian intervention.

“When people are walking for hours and days, and they are leaving their entire lives behind and they come to this new space where they are not exactly sure how to live in that space, but they just know that they want to live in that space, I think those of us who are originally from that space have an obligation to make sure that as much as we can, we make them comfortable,” Wills said.

And it is for this reason that the group was created. The group simply started off as a band of people with similar interest of working to create a more comfortable life for the migrants, particularly those in Region One, where the concentration of migrants is higher.

“This is really sort of a people-centred, people-driven and people-focused approach,” Wills said and added that this is in conjunction with the efforts of central government and its related agencies and other voluntary groups.

AID
The group is currently mobilising resources mainly through its donation drive to transport to the migrant communities set up in Region One, hopefully by the end of October. This aid is entirely material-based and includes garnering non-perishable food items, sanitary supplies, clothing and other necessities.

Acquiring farming equipment has been a major aim for the group as well. This comes as earlier news reports had detailed that Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, said Cabinet was exploring a settlement plan for those migrants residing in the township of Mabaruma, Region One. This settlement plan proposed that the people would also be given land to farm and become self-reliant.

Identifying what items should be taken to the people was done after consultations with persons in the area. Wills mentioned that the group is in contact with the regional chairperson of Region One, who has been gathering information on the migrants from toshaos across the region.

And cognisant that relief has been going to the migrants, particularly from the CDC, he noted: “We’re trying to examine donations offers that have gone out already and serve the areas that have not been served as yet; and [we’re] looking for the underserved areas.”

PEOPLE-FOCUSED
Guyana adopted the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which streamlines migration. What this means, is that the country has an international and humanitarian obligation to cater for migrants.

“There are still obligations for us to make sure as much as reasonably possible people who are coming into our country are taken care of,” Wills explained and added: “They should have the basic access to social services and they [should] have basic access to some resources which can make their time more comfortable.”

Aside from humanitarian obligations, however, Wills reminded: “Not all are Venezuelan migrants, but Guyanese who were living in Venezuela returning home.” It is a matter of taking care of the country’s own, he said.

For many, the current border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela has created a situation where there is some reluctance to render assistance to the migrants.

As regards those feelings, Derwayne highlighted that the controversy is a conversation for the “power-to-power” level and clarified, “We are working at the people-to-people level.”

Despite the disagreement at the national level, the exodus of Venezuelan migrants and their immigration into Guyana, do not and ought not to preclude Guyanese from acting to protect their basic human rights, according to Wills.

To bolster its efforts, the group is requesting personal care items, baby items, non-perishable food supplies and generally any item that can presumably make the life of the people more comfortable. Though the current donation drive ends on October 15, persons can contact the group on the numbers: 694-1508 or 687-0211 or via email at: msnguyana@gmail.com. Donations are being collected at ‘Everything makes craft’, top floor at Keishar’s Building, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.