By Rehana Ahamad

OVER the past decade, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has been an underdog, struggling to reclaim its position as a leading income earner for the country.

In 2017, under the David Granger administration, a decision was taken to close four estates – the ones located at Rose Hall, Skeldon, Enmore and Wales — and some 7,000 sugar workers were said to have lost their jobs in that process. Later, when the Irfaan Ali government assumed office in August 2020, efforts commenced to reopen these estates, and the corporation’s new leadership is promising a massive “comeback” for GuySuCo and the country’s ailing sugar industry.

From all indications, this will not be an easy task, but it is one that is being supported and likely to be advanced by the vibrant young women who have been breaking barriers in several male-dominated positions at GuySuCo’s Blairmont Estate; the Sunday Chronicle caught up with a handful of them on Friday.

During a pleasant interview, Candacy Mentore recalled her dreams of becoming an independent “office woman”; she imagined herself as someone who wore flattering high heels and would always have her hair neat and nails well done.

“I was in a business stream while I was attending Tutorial Academy, and I really wanted to work in an office,” Mentore explained.

A Career Day talk done by representatives from GuySuCo’s training school would soon change her life in drastic ways.

“The way they talked, the place sounded nice; it sounded like a good opportunity, so I decided to collect a form and fill it up…I eventually wrote the test, and I passed and got through,” Mentore recalled.

Her dreams would eventually entail having her hands and nails covered with fuel and grease, as opposed to glitter lotions and acrylic.

“I finally, actually fell in love with what I have become; it really was a great opportunity and you rarely find females taking up this type of course; most of my female friends would say that they don’t want to get their hands dirty and all of that,” Mentore told the Sunday Chronicle.

She said that choosing to get her hands dirty was one of the most fulfilling things she has ever done. After completing a four-year apprenticeship programme, Mentore has been working for two years in the auto-electrical shop at GuySuCo’s Blairmont Estate.

“Right now, I am working in the motorcycles shop; changing brakes pads, changing wheel bearings, servicing motorbikes, changing oil and everything relating to auto-electrical work,” the 22-year-old New Amsterdam resident related.

She said that her experiences so far have underscored the universal saying that women are capable of doing it all. “I really love it. It is very nice, because females can do anything, and we should start doing different things and not always go with the norm. We can be whatever we want to be; we don’t have to limit ourselves,” Mentore posited.

A WHIZ IN THE SHOP

Kavita Persaud is also an auto-electrician attached to the Guyana Sugar Corporation. While she was in fifth form, her school also benefitted from a “career talk” facilitated by GuySuCo’s training school.

“They shared out the forms and I didn’t collect any, but while going home from school I collect my friend own and I photocopy it. I full up the form and I drop it in,” the Blairmont resident related.
Soon after, Persaud made the decision to abandon the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and drop out of school at the age of 16. “I never used to like school,” Persaud told the Sunday Chronicle.

A few days later, destiny would strike and Persaud would receive a pleasant phone call from a representative of GuySuCo’s training school.

“I get a call fuh seh I got to go and write a test, and whilst writing the test, I keep wondering if I guh pass,” Persaud recalled.

She explained that the tests were based on the four core subject areas – Maths, Science, Social Studies, and English Language.

“Little after, they said I passed the test and then little after that I start the course,” the young woman related. The courses are residential and Persaud had to move into a dorm located in the compound of the Blairmont Estate.

“At one point I start to cry and I tell mommy that I didn’t want to go back; it [was] too hard, I tell her that I didn’t like the food and so; I was ready to give up,” the young woman remembered.

Persaud received wholesome encouragements from her brother who had already passed through the system; she would later graduate from the GuySuCo training school with flying colours.

“After that, they start to place us in sections and I came over at the electrical shop, where we fix starters and alternators and so on. We do servicing and stuff like that,” Persaud highlighted.

After four years of apprenticeship and two years working in the shop, the young woman enjoys using every opportunity to push herself, and with each passing day, becoming an even better auto-electrician.

“Sometimes the boys does want to jump and do things, and I does try to do it myself to show that I could do it too,” a candid Persaud said.

WHEN THE CHEMISTRY IS JUST RIGHT!

Meanwhile, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara resident, Melina Gildharie is currently a participant in GuySuCo’s Management Training Programme, where she is being trained to become a Chemist Shift Manager.

The young woman, who will be graduating from the University of Guyana this year, said that her love for chemistry runs deep, and that the aforementioned programme was an ideal fit for her aspirations.

“I have an aunt who is a chemist and I worked with her while I was doing work-study and I really enjoyed it a lot. I realised that this was my field…this was what I needed to get into,” a smiling Gildharie told the Sunday Chronicle.

She said that she learnt of the GuySuCo opportunity a couple years ago, and armed with high hopes, she immediately applied.

“They took me in last year. They said that I didn’t need the experience, and that they would train me; I found that to be a really nice thing, because as somebody fresh out of UG, nobody really wants to take you in, so I felt like the opportunity found me,” Gildharie related.

She explained that during the out-of-crop period, the participants of the programme would be stationed within the different sections of the estate.

“There were the labs, pre-milling and milling, and we would just be undersigned, whether it was to the foreman or the shift manager, and they would take us through the stuff,” the former St. Rose’s High School student said.

She noted that the senior officers would mostly explain various components of the estates, but on some good days the trainees would be allowed to participate and get a hands-on experience of what being a Chemist Shift Manager entails.

Gildharie said that the operations of the Blairmont Estate which she now calls home, have often left her fascinated.

“Standing there sometimes, I wonder who came up with these things, because it really just works…you see the cane that comes in from the field, and then the sugar comes out, but we never actually ask ourselves about all the processes that it needs to go through, and when I see it, I am in awe,” the young woman noted.

“When we are here during the out-of-crop period and you’re dismantling and putting things back together, it’s like, wow…these people are doing it…so you’re just fascinated by how everybody is working and the work that they do and so on…it’s been a really good experience so far,” the smiling young woman said.

She said that being one of the few women working in technical capacities at the estate has had some unique, but minor challenges.

“I hope I make a really good shift manager, because a lot of people are skeptical because I’m a girl…they’re always like okay, ‘when you start, this is what the timings would be like, and will you be able to handle it?’

Asked whether this has been a deterrent, Gildharie responded “When they tell me that it might hard, it just makes me want to do it more.”

SISTER CHEMISTRY

Christina and Dianna Johnnie are sisters; both are University of Guyana graduates who lived with their parents at Timehri, East Bank Demerara. When the sisters completed their tertiary education, they were both looking for employment opportunities and other ways of elevating themselves. They stumbled upon a useful GuySuCo advertisement in the newspapers and opted to apply.

“This was an opportunity that presented itself, and we applied and got through and so we’re here. It’s been excellent, because being somebody who likes to learn, and this being an environment with endless information, it’s been great,” a smiling Dianna related.

She said that being amidst and learning of the operations of the Blairmont Estate has been both rewarding and intriguing.

“Just today [Friday] we learnt how sugar is boiled, and it blew my mind, because it is boiled under atmospheric pressure, and I asked the guy, ‘so why?’ And he was like, ‘because it lowers the temperatures,’ and I’m like, ‘but that makes it cooler’, and he was like, ‘exactly’ and that just blew my mind,” a seemingly bubbly Dianna recalled.

Once she completes the management programme, the young woman hopes to become an effective and efficient Chemist Shift Manager who can add to the advancement of not only the Blairmont Estate, but all of GuySuCo.

“I want to be ranked the very best and climb my way to the top; as far as I can go,” an ambitious Dianna posited.

Her sister, Christina Johnnie, was initially a little concerned about moving away from home, but she knew that the management programme was a step in the right direction.

“My parents were a little skeptical at first because we had never moved away from home or lived on our own before, but that in itself has been a new experience for both them and us,” Christina said.

The Biology major has been keen on soaking up as much knowledge and gaining as many experiences as she possible can.

“I hope to complete the programme successfully and become a Chemist Shift Manager, because I think it will open many doors…I have been learning so much and meeting a lot of new people,” Christina told the Sunday Chronicle.

The 26-year-old, who also has a minor in chemistry, said that she was taken aback by the fact that even though the UG graduates in her field often accounted for mostly females, the technical posts within the estates are male-dominated. Christina is hopeful that in the coming years, more young Guyanese women would see GuySuCo as a sea of knowledge with endless scope for professional growth.

“I am really hoping that I could complete this programme with flying colours and secure a permanent job right here, because really and truly, this is a great company to work in.”

Collectively, these young women said that they are committed to providing the kind of exceptional services that can help to bring GuySuCo out of its current rot, and set the ailing sugar industry on a course to reaching new heights.