US Ambassador Sarah Ann-Lynch, on Thursday, met with Mayor of Linden, Waneka Arrindell, her councillors and staff of the Linden Mayor and Town Council where they discussed current areas of collaboration. Lynch’s team included her husband, Mr. Kevin Healing, New Horizon’s captain, Solomon Bannister and Peace Corp’s official, Wendy Hersheberger.

The Mayor expressed gratitude for the assistance and collaboration being garnished from agencies attached to the U.S embassy, particularly New Horizons, Humanitarian Assistance Programe (HAP) and Peace Corps. New Horizons will be constructing two community centres in Linden and a women’s home. HAP has conducted several medical outreaches, have donated to the Linden Hospital Complex in the past and is preparing for a massive two weeks medical outreach in July. The Peace Corps volunteers are presently working in schools and are assisting the LMTC with its junior mayor project.

The Ambassador asked about challenges the municipality may be encountering so that they may be able to render assistance. Mayor Arrindell highlighted the need to provide relief for our abused women and children, not only in Linden, but throughout Region Ten. While the women’s home will assist in providing safe temporary accommodation, the home needs to be transformed into an empowerment centre and assistance is needed in this regard.

In addition, the mayor highlighted her vision to transform Linden into a sustainable town by adopting some of the seventeen sustainable development goals that were adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015. She stressed the goal of ‘clean water and sanitation’ and related that the aim is to start this practice in schools. Sanitation is one of the main issues in the township and she believes that by creating a clean and sanitary environment in our schools, communities and constituencies will soon follow.

Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, Lawrence Simon, related to the ambassador and team that the township would also appreciate assistance in its aqua-tourism initiative. Linden is the only town through which a main river passes and this needs to be exploited, Simon said. He spoke of developing a boardwalk among other things.
The ambassador commended the mayor and councillors for their vision and the mayor for remaining active. “We love to partner with you and we will continue to explore opportunities,” she said. On their way to Linden, the Ambassador stopped at Camp Seweyo to interact with the New Horizon ranks stationed there. She also toured some of Linden’s tourism hot spots.