–to train 1,378 under HEYS programme

OVER the last three years, $650M has been invested in training 1,378 youths from Region One (Barima-Waini) through the Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS) programme.

Thanks to the training those youths got, they were able to establish some 710 operational businesses, ranging from grocery shops, snackettes, poultry rearing, and a fuel depot among other ventures.

This was revealed by Ministerial Adviser and Member of Parliament Mervyn Williams during a stimulus-grant distribution exercise in Moruca on Friday.

During the course of the event, at which Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Sydney Allicock, and Minister within the Ministry, Valerie Garrido-Lowe were present, 274 young entrepreneurs received close to $14M in grants to boost their respective businesses.
As Minister Allicock reminded those present at the function that the government’s ultimate goal is to remove the disparity between life in the hinterland and life on the coastland, and that one way of successfully achieving it was to educate people.

Noting that it was for this very reason that the ‘Coalition Government’ not only created the HEYS programme, targeting some 4,000 hinterland youths to be trained and certified, but also resuscitated the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship programme that had been shelved by the previous administration.

But unfortunately, while the programme at reference had recruited Indigenous persons to serve as Community Support Officers (CSO), there was no scope for training.
HEYS, on the other hand, ensures that persons are trained and certified and make a meaningful contribution to their community and country as a whole.

In the Moruca sub-region alone, some $203M was invested in 419 youths under HEYS, and to date, 274 businesses are operational. At the event, some of the young people spoke about the impact of the programme on their lives.

Seizing the opportunity to encourage them to develop a positive attitude in whatever they aim to achieve in life, MP Williams said, “Once you develop a positive attitude, like the young lady who is living with a disability and is now an entrepreneur, you will rise. And like the sister with three children who is no longer a dependent housewife, you will rise.”

And reminding them that the HEYS programme was initiated by President David Granger as part of his Ten-point Plan for Hinterland Development, and that its objective is to provide educational, entrepreneurial, vocational and technical training opportunities that will lead to empowerment, job creation, employment whilst improving livelihoods and ultimately poverty reduction, Williams said:

“This is the approach of our government; We want to give you the opportunity to become businessmen and women, and earn and live a good life. You don’t have to depend on anyone; you are your own boss, and that is the aim of HEYS. We have seen many young people who are trying and need a little push, and that is why we are giving further support to those young people.”

He encouraged the young entrepreneurs to diversify; to look at the needs of their communities and pursue other business ideas.

Minister Garrido-Lowe added that the programme saw approximately $10M being invested in all of the villages targeted. This translates to $410,000 being expended on each beneficiary, and an additional sum into the facilitators which was recruited from the respective villages.

“The APNU+AFC Government has invested in our youths because we believe in our Indigenous Peoples. We believe that if we give them a chance to develop, they will take that opportunity and run with it and rise and shine.”

Over the last three years, the APNU+AFC Government invested total of more than $2B in the HEYS programme.