MINISTER responsible for sport, Nicollette Henry, yesterday implored the women who completed the “GOA Women and Sport Seminar” to go back into their communities and be a beacon in the development of women in sports, while Director of Sport Christopher Jones promised that funding will be made available to the women for such activities Henry and Jones were at the time speaking at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Headquarters on High Street at the closing ceremony of the seminar.
The seminar was conducted at the National Resource Centre, Woolford Avenue. Henry, who was also present at a panel discussion earlier during the day, noted that while the issues facing women in sports still have some way to go before they could be remedied, each of the participants now has to play her part to help.
“I hope that you take away valuable learnings that you can execute and share with your colleagues and charges when you return to your respective communities.
Yes, we have a lot of work to do, but I’m confident with you forging forward and tackling the sometimes difficult subject that has risen, progress will be made.”
Meanwhile, even as one of the participants noted, her hopes of reviving certain sports such as hockey in the Linden area, Jones assured all those in attendance that the government is especially committed to assisting women’s activities in sports.
According to Jones, the problem is not so much getting the funding, as it is finding persons or entities eager to use it.
“You can come knocking on my door, the funds are there awaiting you. The government through the 2016 budget has made those allocations available, we place specific emphasis on women and the differently abled to participate in sports.
The challenge, however, that we have at the National Sports Commission is having female representatives coming to the Sports Commission to access those funding.” Jones remarked.
Several participants in the event took the opportunity to commend the seminar on how informative and enjoyable it was, and thanked the GOA for making it possible.
“The seminar was very informative, I’m happy that I was selected to represent my region, I can now take this information back. The part that especially caught my attention was the nutrition aspect, now that will be something that I will be looking at come this year Nationals,” said one participant who travelled all the way from Region Five to attend the seminar.
The GOA made a particular effort to ensure that participants at the event were as decentralised as possible, and managed to achieve this aim with the event seeing the participation of persons from nine of Guyana’s total 10 regions.
A total of 57 women took part in the seminar which covered women-specific topics such as “Re-positioning Sports to Women,” “Abuse within the Sporting World,” “Benefits of Physical Exercise for Girls and Women.”
Yesterday’s session included a presentation by Justice Roxane George on “Abuse Within the Sporting World,” and a motivational address by Top End Training Centre CEO Kezqweyah Yisreal
. The day’s activity concluded with a panel discussion on “Barriers that contribute to the gender gap in sport and how to overcome them.”
At the head table was fitness instructor Noshavyah King, volleyball coach Leota Langford, Attorney-at-Law Emily Dodson, and Minister Henry.