Commonwealth rower calls on First Lady
Ministry of the Presidency, Press Release – Tuesday, March 12, 2019
First Lady, Mrs. Sandra Granger, today, met with Mr. Richard Allen, a Commonwealth Rower, who paddled for 76 days from the Coast of Sierra Leone, West Africa to Georgetown, Guyana.
After the meeting held at her State House Office, Mrs. Granger said that “anybody who can sail across the Atlantic alone has to be commended, it speaks to great determination and most importantly, the desire to succeed. Mr. Allen is a great role model and I am very happy to have had a discussion with him about issues of mutual interest.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Allen spoke of his plans to return to Guyana to assist in the work of the Guyana Foundation of which Mrs. Granger is the patron. This organisation is a charitable trust that has been created to contribute meaningfully to the development of Guyana and has been working in the areas of mental health and community development.
“Hopefully I will be back to Guyana soon to work on some of the projects with the Foundation. They have projects such as the Sunrise Centre and also dealing with mental health issues and development of Amerindian communities, I am hoping that we can get more people interested from the UK [United Kingdom] …” Mr. Allen said.
Mr. Allen’s parents, Roger Allen and Sheila Allen and local businessman, Mr. Stanley Ming were also present at the meeting.