WOMEN empowerment, security and youth advancement are high on the agenda of 24-year-old Civil Engineer, Eketa Edwards vying for candidate for proportional representation of Constituency No.13 in this year’s Local Government Elections (LGEs).

The young woman proudly represents A Partnership for National Unity Party (APNU) and her constituency which encompasses West and East Ruimveldt.

Being a resident of East Ruimveldt for over 23 years, as Edwards grew she noticed the needs in her community and when the opportunity presented itself for her to make a difference, she grabbed hold of it.

“So far, what we have been doing as a team is engaging residents within the community by verifying their information, whether they’re on the list or not. I would have found that I’m from a loving community that comes together in unity and they’re willing to push self-help programmes to better the community,” she said, speaking of activities that have begun.
Through these one-on-one engagements, Edwards has gotten to hear in detail some of the concerns of the residents in her constituency.

Although she doesn’t believe that being a civil engineer gives her an edge in the elections, the young woman knows that she will be able to make a lasting difference in the regular cleaning of drains and canals to prevent flooding in the flood-prone area.

“Because of my technical background I see the need for regular maintenance in terms of cleaning the drains. But we have some major drains that cannot be reached because of the squatting and that is something that can’t be dealt with on my level.”

“But, what can keep the waters down during the rainy season is regularly cleaning the drains and a regular maintenance schedule for these drains to be cleaned. In some cases where the machines won’t be able to reach it, it would have to be hand dug and I see the community coming together to get that done. They just need the leadership to get it done,” she stated.

It is also as a result of her technical background that a portion of her focus, if elected, would be dedicated to encouraging women’s empowerment and gender equality at the community level.

Being a female in a male-dominated field, Edwards knows all too well what it takes to survive.

“Coming in to it as a young lady you have to work extra hard, you have to push harder so I’m particularly concerned with women in my community who would like to get into technical fields.

“I would like to develop programmes in which we can engage all young people so that they can develop different trades and different skills through which they will then learn to have a business mindset, so that their trade and their skill can give them an income,” she explained.

Edwards intends to work along with other community leaders and will request the assistance of her female friends who are also in technical fields, to meet with the women and girls to further empower them as real-life examples.

Other areas the young woman hopes to address are increased streetlights to prevent robberies and the maintenance of community roads to prevent small cracks from becoming huge and dangerous potholes.

With LGEs being reestablished in Guyana in recent years after an over 20- year hiatus, Edwards emphasised the importance of the process and what it means for communities.
“You have that chance of selecting a person that you want to represent your community, who would be able to bring the interest of the community to the table at the council level so that the problems and issues that you’re having within your communities can be taken care of. A lot of young people don’t know the importance of Local Government Elections and that is because as young as we are, is as young as Local Government hasn’t been kept,” she said.

The young woman added, however: “It starts with us now. It starts with us making the decision now because if we sit back and we don’t make a decision on who we want to represent our communities, then it’s like we’re saying we don’t care about what’s going to happen…So, as young persons we need to get out and we need to get our votes in because when we make our votes we know who to go to when we’re having issues in the community.”