A PRESS release on August 10, 2013, relayed the information that the Hugo Chavez Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintegration, located at Onverwagt, West Coast Berbice, would begin taking in occupants within a short span of time. The opening ceremony was conducted by then President Donald Ramotar and Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana Reina Margarita Arratia Dias, with the unveiling of the dedication plaque which cleared the way for the facility to begin accepting the 100 males and 80 females that it was built to accommodate.
A careful selection process was undertaken that involved a close examination of the mental state of the occupants who were to be housed at the facility, according to then Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Patrick Findlay, Technical Consultant, the late Walter Willis informed the invitees that there was security surveillance and several other features on the building to ensure the safety and comfort of the inhabitants.

The Hugo Chavez Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintegration, constructed with US$2M funding from Venezuela, came with recreational, medical, kitchen, conference room, training and dining facilities. A section of the land space was dedicated to meaningful occupation of residents in agricultural practices. The primary intent of the centre was to endeavour to transform the lives of its occupants so as to enable them to become disciplined and productive members of the society, according to an officiating minister. “When the Commander (Chavez) made the decision to approve this project (homeless shelter) to be funded by Alba, through PetroCaribe, he did it because of his compassion and commitment to help the most disadvantaged persons… for the Government and the people of Venezuela, the fact that this centre bears the name of our eternal Commander Hugo Chavez is of great significance,” Ambassador Arratia Dias said in her remarks
Through its aggressive housing initiative and measures that have led, and is continuing to lead, to job creation and self-entrepreneurship, successive PPP/C governments have demonstrated that they remain committed to the task of giving hope and requisite help to the country’s voiceless and vulnerable.

While government is pursuing macro developmental projects, it is also pursuing adjunctive people-empowerment micro programmes and one hopes that the disadvantaged, such as those addicted to harmful substances that are devastating their own lives and the lives of their families, would not have to be dependent on NGOs for rescue and rehabilitation.
Successive governments have been giving to various NGOs, funding to help abused women and children and substance abusers, but instead, the monies have, in many instances, been diverted to other causes for which the funding was not intended. So, well-meaning as its intentions are in its disbursements of funds to NGOs, it would greatly benefit the intended beneficiaries if relevant government departments establish their own protective/rehabilitative programmes, so that recipients of the outlays are the persons that the funding was intended to help.
Many of society’s major problems, including juvenile and adult delinquencies, are directly attributable to substance abuse but, sadly, there are hardly if any affordable facilitating mechanisms, except punitive ones that merely exacerbate the problems that can be accessed by those most needing clinical, medical and rehabilitative interventions to turn around their lives to become productive members of society.