Charting the path of development in Fort Ordinance

DEVELOPMENT is a word being heard constantly in recent times. All across Guyana, people in and out of leadership positions work tirelessly to build their communities and homes. However, some of the obvious questions remain: What does it mean to develop a community? What work goes into advancing a community? And how can everyone be a part of their community’s development? The Pepperpot Magazine sat down with the Vice-Chairman of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), who is responsible for the village of Fort Ordinance.

Fort Ordinance is a popular name for anyone living in the Canje area. Home to several hundred people, Fort Ordinance comes to mind when thinking about a community. The quiet village can be found along the back of the Canje River, with counterparts like Sheet Anchor, Palmyra, and No. 2 Village. However, like communities everywhere, the villagers have highlighted areas they think need improvement. Ashraf Ali Jahoor is Vice-Chairman of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council, which is responsible for communities like Fort Ordinance. He lives in Palmyra, and is dedicated to developing his region, with the driving force being cooperation.

Crafting a community to make a home. “We are about 16,000 people across the constituency,” the Chairman shared. Like many places in Guyana, Fort Ordinance and its neighbouring communities share strong cultural and social roots and similarities. Throughout the various communities, people are friendly, as they talk and communicate, showing what Guyanese hospitality means. Most villagers expressed a profound love for their community without any interest in moving.

Following in the footsteps of the region, Fort Ordinance has seen a wide array of changes and developments. Infrastructure has been a big player in the community. As the Chairman explained, emphasis was placed on making the community a place the people would be proud to call home. “We are the only NDC that has two health centres in the area. And recently, as it relates to health, we got a dental clinic; a dental facility, rather than to say, in one of those health centres,” he said.

Youth development is also something the community is looking to develop. Being somewhat of a residential area, Fort Ordinance houses several hundred young persons. Steps have been taken to develop the community’s ball fields. In his interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, the Vice-Chairman said, “The government also; and we partnered with the NDC. They rehabilitated two of our ball fields, and they were put into use immediately by residents.”

Ashraf and his team have outlined various deadlines and plans for developing their constituency, Fort Ordinance and its neighbours. With the work done on infrastructure and scenic development, Fort Ordinance is well on its way to being a residential hotspot. Garbage collection is the Council’s newest endeavour, as the Vice- Chairman said, “We also started a development of garbage collection. We’re doing it once per week, as we build our customer base. And, at the end, we took the approach whereby we don’t wait until His Excellency or the Minister announces on a monthly basis where we do this cleanup in all our eight constituencies.

THE ECONOMIC SIDE OF THINGS

Ways of economic means are big issues and topics everywhere, specifically in areas such as Berbice and Canje. Agriculture is known to be a significant economic player in the region, but for Fort Ordinance, a village just off of the township of New Amsterdam, business seems to be the next big thing. “We promote a lot of small businesses; encourage persons, even someone selling with a little shop and so forth. And we promote those; once it’s safe, and you do the correct thing in a hygienic manner, we promote those activities. And in all our meetings, persons with inquiries on financing, we would direct them to the Small Business Bureau (SBB); so we give them first-hand information,” said the Vice- Chairman.

In many cases, the general public may see leadership as being distant and hard to reach, and they may be frustrated by not getting their problems heard. This is something Ashraf and his team are working on combatting. As the village moves towards a bright future, the NDC made a special effort to engage the community. “We took an approach, from the NDC level, whereby everybody would ask about streets, about drainage, and light. But we have more engagement with the community, because we go out in the field once a month. I’ll meet other residents; myself and the Chairman are available every Wednesday from 0100hrs one to 16:30hrs in the afternoon. So we get all the information coming in, and we correspond with residents, too,” Ashraf said.

Fort Ordinance could be cited as one of the fastest-developing communities in the region. This is perhaps owed to the approach of its leaders. “I made a statement, and I stand by my statement that we want to be the number one NDC in Guyana. That is our goal, and we have set smaller goals for where we want to become by the next local government election, where we want to be, and we are exceeding those already.”

The importance of the role played in the development of any community is not overlooked in Fort Ordinance. According to the vice chair, the people come first and their support of the driving forces behind the villages’s advancement. “I love the support that we are getting from residents. They’re supporting the NDC, they’re reaching out, they have confidence in the NDC, and it makes us happy to know that we have this. There are some problems, some persons come to issue problems, we try to resolve it,” he said.