Community centres and women’s shelter for Linden

― Construction to commence in March

― Women’s home to empower abused women

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, February 27, 2019

The construction of two community centres in Amelia’s Ward and Blue Berry Hill, Linden and the women’s shelter will commence in March as the Linden Mayor and Town Council, has completed the clearing of lands to facilitate this process.

The three much-needed modern facilities, will be constructed by the United States Air Force’s New Horizon.

Mayor of Linden Waneka Arrindell, recently returned from the final planning conference with New Horizon group, in Arizona. Discussions were held on the construction of the facilities and plans for a massive two weeks medical outreach slated for Linden in early July. The exercise will be held at the Egbert Benjamin Conference Centre.

The designs of the buildings were also revealed at the conference. The women’s shelter will have several private rooms, a training room, kitchen, living room, common area and an infirmary. A location for the shelter has already been chosen but has not been revealed. The home is expected to have maximum security as well as a resident care taker.  The community centres will include a classroom, common area, kitchen, office and storage areas.

The two community centres will also serve as empowerment facilities, where women and youths can engage in communal economic activities such as agro processing. “The reason the Council chose the two communities is because Amelia’s Ward is a fast-growing community and Blue Berry Hill because of the distance from access to public transport,” Mayor Arindell revealed.

Arindell is hoping, that the shelter will not only be used as a safe home, but as an empowerment centre so the formerly abused women will leave financially, mentally and emotionally stronger.

“We will join forces with NGO’s who will give us support. So the onus is on us as a municipality to ensure that outside of being just a home, we want to provide a training centre to teach the women trades if they don’t have,” Arindell said.

She is calling for collaboration from all requisite stake holders in the social arena to lend their support to making this project a holistic success. “Whenever the women leave there, they must leave there fully developed, they must be able to be hired and if women are displaced with children, they must be able to move back into a setting where they can be able to survive outside of that home.”

The shelter and community centres are especially needed in Linden since statistics have shown that the community ranks high in area of domestic abuse affecting both women and children.  In 2017, Region 10 had been identified as the region with the highest general rate of child abuse with Linden having the most recorded cases of abuse, with neglect being the highest form followed by sexual abuse.

New Horizon’s medical outreach in July will include general care clinics such as women’s health, paediatrics, general medicine, internal medicine, dental care, optometry and physical therapy. Gynaecological surgeries will also be done at the Linden Hospital Complex LHC).

Story and image: Vanessa Braithwaite.