40 persons graduate from Cottage Industry training programme
Some 40 people drawn from Region Four are now equipped to start or grow their businesses, after completing training through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s Garment and Accessories Cottage Industry initiative.
Minister Hon. Dr. Vindhya Persaud commended the graduates who earned certificates after completing the five weeks of intense training in areas such as business literacy and micro-enterprise. The training also covered such issues as gender-based and domestic violence, depression and suicide, conflict resolution and mediation, anger management, the law, and knowing your rights.
In her address today at the graduation exercise, she said: “The journey has been an eventful one, but I’m happy that you had the faith to be part of an initiative that will spiral out into many more…This means that you are interested in becoming accomplished and ambassadors of an initiative that will propel you to success and greater heights and more importantly, finding within yourselves, resourcefulness, resilience and making a difference in a very positive way.”
The initial stages of the pilot project saw participants producing close to 200,000 masks, which were distributed to senior students returning to schools in November. This was followed by the business literacy training, which aimed at equipping them with skills to become independent.
“This initiative would have taken you to a point where you have a skill, and now you’ve honed that skill, and now, you’re thinking of how to use that skill beyond making a facemask, to take it to other levels. More importantly, I saw a niche, what was needed and that niche has spiralled on to something that you can use to create your own niche market,” Dr. Persaud said.
The Minister announced that the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute (GWLI) would be a hub for training programmes in many areas coming out from this initiative. The GWLI will also be helping people improve their products and find markets.
Graduate Ms. Charleen Grimmond applauded the Ministry for the initiative which targeted men and women. She said the training was a stepping stone for her and her colleagues. “We were privileged, some of us in days to come will become counsellors and be able to direct persons to the relevant personnel who can bring hope. We are also now able to put things into perspective as it relates to our businesses.”
The graduates also displayed some of the masks and other items they produced for sale. On Tuesday, 13 Region Two women graduated from the programme at the New Opportunity Corps, Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast.