-Young Amerindian leader, Sarah Browne, reflects on development of hinterland communities under PPP/C gov’t

THE transformation taking place in Guyana is being steered by the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C); it is placing youths at the head of the developmental agenda and Sarah Browne, a young Amerindian leader stands as a testament to this.
The 32-year-old woman, who hails from Santa Rosa, Moruca Region One (Barima-Waini), managed to secure a spot in the PPP’s central committee and has vowed to continue working for the betterment of the Guyanese people.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Browne reflected on her journey as a youth activist and a former teacher who used her talents to educate and elevate youths in various ways, such as enabling young women to become actively involved in sports.
At the young age of 23, she was appointed as the Vice Chair for Region One and while this role came with major policy-making responsibilities, Browne did not let her age deter her but instead vowed to make a difference in her region.

Further, she commended the PPP for uplifting youths in the party and noted, “I don’t think that any other party would, you know, promote young people like that, because compared to the other party, the APNU+ AFC, look at the composition, you don’t see many young people having opportunities.”
Speaking about her previous appointment as Vice Chair, the young Amerindian leader stated that it came with its challenges and with the PPP in opposition at that time and APNU+AFC in office, she saw little being done to bolster the lives of Guyanese and often her plans fell on deaf ears.

“I was only 23 years old when I would have been given this position and trusted with representing [the] people of an entire region. And not only that, but at that time, the party I came from [PPP] was in opposition. So, you know, you were in a leadership position [but] it’s like, you’re with the government that doesn’t support you because of your politics and many of the changes that you wanted to see could not have been possible…” Browne said.

However, despite her plans for improvement being shelved, she still interacted and remained on the ground.
“For me, that position would have been fulfilling, because I would have travelled the length and breadth of the region… I got to interact with the people, see what their needs are [and] where are the gaps,” she noted.

TRANSFORMATION
As someone who grew up under the PPP and was not aware of life under another administration, Browne noted that it is clear as day now which party genuinely cares for the people based on the previous coalition government’s stint in office from 2015-2020.
“… Growing up in an Amerindian village…our way of life was totally different. Because I remember we would wake up [and] paddle to school…and at that time, like many of us, we never knew what is a backpack, [so] we put our books in a flour bag.

“Now, if you look at Moruca, I mean, it’s like maybe 1,000 times better because now we have the hot meal programme,” she said, adding that there was a time when children got hot meals from the Catholic church.
“Now the government gives a free meal every day to every single child in the primary school and that’s something we never had,” Browne said while listing other initiatives that the PPP/C government has been rolling out.

“The transformation, unless you live it, you really can’t appreciate, you know, how far we have come.
Browne also highlighted how the former APNU+AFC government did not leave good memories in the minds of the Guyanese people.
“At that time, the government was so disconnected from the people…We didn’t really have our issues heard…There was a total disconnect.

We never had visits from government, maybe one minister came. But we never saw our leaders and because they [didn’t] come, they [didn’t] understand the struggle, understood what we needed, understood how to craft the budget to meet our needs and so during that period, it was really, really difficult because while we would have seen what was going on, we didn’t have the support to get these things in the budget.”

However, under the PPP government much more is being done for Amerindian communities, according to her, such as the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which has enabled those communities to receive funds that will bolster development.
The world’s first TREES credits were notably awarded to Guyana by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) in December 2022. It was the first time a nation had received carbon credits created especially for the voluntary and compliant carbon markets for effectively preventing the loss and degradation of forests, a procedure known as jurisdictional REDD+, which was a significant milestone.

Guyana received 33.47 million TREES credits from ART for the five years between 2016 and 2020 after the Board of Directors of ART approved the project and concluded an independent evaluation and verification process. This made it possible for Hess Corporation and the Guyana government to reach a historic deal in which the oil giants decided to buy one-third of all Guyana’s credits—both issued and projected—up until 2030.