THE University of Guyana has gifted the Palms Geriatric Home, Demerara Mahaica Regional Health Office and Region Six Regional Democratic Council with a quantity of sanitisation supplies, masks, oximeters and thermometers.
The donation was part of UG’s Cares Initiative. The handing over activities were held on Monday June 22, 2020 at Region Four, Regional Democratic Office, Triumph, East Coast Demerara, while Region Six handover was done on June 24, 2020 at the RDC Chairman’s Office in New Amsterdam.

According to a release from UG, the Regional Executive Officer of Region Four, Ms. Pauline Lucas, expressed thanks to the University of Guyana and stated that, “the supplies will be used to fight the pandemic COVID-19 on a daily basis in all 31 Health Facilities across the Demerara-Mahaica Region.” The ceremony was attended by Dr. Emanuel Cummings, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Christopher Seetram, a representative from Region Four, Regional Health Office and Officers from the Office of Philanthropy Alumni and Civic Engagement (PACE), which organised the funding and logistics in response to letters to Prof. Paloma Mohamed, Vice-Chancellor Xi, from alumni of the university requesting various forms of support in fighting the pandemic.

The Regional Chairman of Region Six, Mr. David Armogan, himself an alumnus, echoed similar sentiments stating that he is thankful to the University of Guyana and that, “this is indeed something that is needed in the region to assist in the fight against the pandemic”. The Chairman further stated that “this will go a long way to assist the people of Region Six.” The ceremony was attended by Prof. Gomathinayagam Subramaniam, Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus along with Officers from PACE Office. There will be upcoming handing over activities of similar items by the University of Guyana to communities in Linden.

To date, the University of Guyana’s administration has taken measures to put the safety of its staff and students first. A decision to restrict physical contact and interaction was taken just after Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020. To this end, specific social work and psychology assessments in the University have been modified to require students to apply their knowledge and expertise to NCOV-19 by supporting the university and university connected including alum who are on the front line and whose communities are vulnerable. UG Cares is responding to this in six ways by partnering with local industry giants GTT and ExxonMobil, volunteers and students (1) Supplying care packages based on a certain set criterion (2) creating and disseminating communication materials especially on prevention, nutrition and care to hard to reach communities (3) providing educational support to children in orphanages (4) providing counselling support to persons in psychological distress and (5) providing analysis and technical support and data for policy and (6) in directly supporting medical and frontline workers who are UG alumni or affiliated. Read more about UG CARES on www.uog.edu.gy or Contact: University of Guyana, Office of Philanthropy, Alumni and Civic Engagement (PACE), Turkeyen Campus on Telephone: 592 623-3159