Batavia youths to soon have internet access

GUYANA, GINA, Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The village council in Batavia, Region Seven is seeking to establish an internet cafe so that youths in the village and nearby communities can engage in beneficial activities.

This was disclosed by Batavia’s Toshao, Eon Boyal during an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA).

Boyal said that the venture will be undertaken using the presidential grant it will receive from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. All computers, the Toshao said, will be sourced from Starr Computers.

“We will embark on that, train the youths and actually use it as an income… you know we have secondary school children, they might as well pay $100 so we can keep the persons who would be looking at it employed,” Boyal stated.

Additionally the Toshao pointed out that the youths participating in the Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS) programme are in their final stage called the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) segment. This section is where the youths create business plans, taking their first step to becoming entrepreneurs.

Soon the youths will be presenting their business plans to the Regional Vice-Chairperson. “We are going to advise them, if they need to alter it a little bit or if we think of a better way of doing it and we can advise them on the way forward with their business plans,” the Toshao explained.

Boyal added that, “they would have been trained in business management, so with the BYOB, they would have implemented what they learned. Selecting their businesses after looking around their village and see which area they think they can create an income.”

Start -up for their business, the Toshao said, will come from money accumulated through the HEYS programme.

HEYS began in 2015 and is geared at empowering about 2000 youths in over 200 hinterland communities.

The youths are trained and certified in areas such as garment construction, carpentry, joinery and entrepreneurship. It entails six months of classroom training and six months of practical training. Participants also benefit from a stipend, as well as business mentoring.

The sum of $991 million has been allocated for the HEYS programme in the 2017 budget.

By: Isaiah Braithwaite