Amerindian leaders complete two-day mediation training

Forty (40) Amerindian leaders from Regions Four, Five, Six and Ten, on Thursday completed a two-day mediation training programme at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, MP, said the training will enable the community leaders to resolve issues in their communities.

“Our leaders and councillors from the village council, we afforded them the opportunity to participate in the mediation training. Mediation for village councils is very important. On a daily basis they will experience various issues, problematic issues, complaints, some sensitive and some difficult ones, and so this training will aid in them addressing some of the resolution of those issues that come before them,” the minister said.

Minister Sukhai said through the training, leaders will be prepared to find common resolution and arrive at unbiased conclusions, when resolving land titling issues and other related matters.

“Ever so often, village councillors and leaders will have to deal with issues of land as it relates to those land users, whether it’s resident or non-resident because the Amerindian Act allows for a number of engagements, both with residents, and it provides also scope for engaging non-residents in investment, in agriculture, sustainable use of the land, and whenever that happens, leaders must be prepared to address issues that come up, that may need mediation.”

Attorney at Law, Paul Bram and team conducted the successful training session.

Mr. Bram said he is confident that the knowledge imparted to the community leaders will be used effectively.

“What we were able to impart to them is that mediation is a process that is worth the while going through, rather than having to end up in squabbles and court mitigation and that kind of thing…

We had some role plays and the ability to perform the role plays was tremendously awesome, so we got very good responses from them. We think that they leave here this afternoon with greater knowledge, greater wisdom in relation to mediation, and how they go about mediating,” Mr. Bram said.

DPI spoke with some of the participants who said the training has greatly enhanced their knowledge and will allow them to better solve problems in their communities.

A village leader from Region Five, Lucia Andres said, “it would benefit me and my community a great deal because it would avoid a lot of problems that we didn’t know could have been taken care of within the community, rather than bringing it out of the community unnecessarily, and very costly. I’m very grateful for that.”

Serving in Region Six, Jason Pablo said the training was very beneficial to all the community leaders. “I think going back to my village, it will be a very beneficial for us the leaders as councillors, as Toshaos, we can be able to solve problems in the community,” he related.